Hawk Eyes
by The-Eighth-Sin
Summary: My First Fic. Naruto gets a special bloodline. NOT the Sharingan or Byakugen. I'm gonna try and make this awesome. Please R&R. flame if you want I'll just laugh. rating for safety. I'm starting to edit all chaps. Bloodline explained in chap2.
1. Chapter 1

Uh, first fic, so I don't know how this works very well/at all.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, like, at all.

Now, we all know the story about Naruto's past, right. (If you don't and you're reading this you must be fucking retarded) So I won't get into to it. Kyuubi comes, yatta yatta, sealed into baby, blah blah, everyone hates him… Insert silent angst here . My version, however takes place the day after the bell-test; on team seven's first D-rank mission. So without further adieu, I present to you the first chapter of Hawk Eyes. Oh, Warning: I don't like Sakura or Sasuke nor do I like NaruHina or NaruSaku.

High above the noble, ninja city of Konoha, atop the roof of the Hokage Tower, three figures could be seen. Not from the ground mind you, they are far too high up for that. These figures, cloaked in mystery at this point, consisted of a loud pink headed howler-monkey of some type; a raven haired girl whose aura of superiority could be felt from miles around; and an orange-clad boy who happens to be the star of this story.

The girl and the loud monkey seem to be in some sort of argument with said orange protagonist. If one listened, one could make out these words.

"NARUTO YOU DUMBASS!! HOW CAN WE FIND THE CAT FROM UP HERE IF WE CAN'T EVEN SEE PEOPLE FROM THIS HEIGHT!?" Screeched the monkey who had somehow managed the ability to from coherent sentences. In fact it yelled so loud that it was impossible to tell she was still winded from scaling such a gargantuan structure. A skill mastered through years of practice one would assume.

"Hn, she's right dobe. Not even I could see the cat from up here" said the girl in a surprisingly mannish voice. 'Even if I had the sharingan.' The princess of the shadowy locks added.

"Aww, come on Sakura-chan, it seemed like a good idea at the time." Our citrus hued hero defended. He had honestly thought the vantage point of the building would be the perfect roost to find the elusive pet of the daiyamo's (sp?) wife.

"Whatever dobe. I'm getting down and finding it the right way."

"I'll come too Sasuke-kun!" The newly dubbed Sakura-chan exclaimed with greta vigor. Vigor so great in fact that, "Sasuke-kun", had to fight back the tears of unimaginable pain that resulted from the bursting of his eardrums; "He" has an image to uphold. The two agitated squad-mates made their way down the building using the incredible ninja skill called: using the stairs. A difficult procedure for the inexperienced, but the rookie of the rear and the smartest kunoichi of the same class felt they were more than up to the daunting task. Ignoring the grumbling protest of leaving their teammate's brilliant perch or as he would put it "really high place so we can see the stupid cat."

Naruto still had the idea in his head that this was the perfect plan, and in his quest to show up his unwilling rival and impress his equally unwilling "future Mrs. Uzumaki" decided to stay put and try anyway. Now, anyone would be hard pressed to find a quiet Naruto, but there he was, just sitting and watching the bustling city below him. To those who knew him, the number of which could proudly count to with both hands now, they would find this sight **HIGHLY** disturbing.

Truth be told, the sun kissed dynamo didn't exactly like being loud; but it was an easy way to achieve the one thing he truly wanted. Acknowledgement. Albeit negative, acknowledgement all the same. Being seen, noticed, not just thrust aside glared at and then forgotten. It gave him some semblance of what he thought to be kinship with the villagers he's sworn to protect with his life. The villagers that he was looking over right now like a Shepard over his flock. Muttering a soft "Don't worry, you're safe." To his beloved home he was roused from his proud musings by a thought that had struck him. Sakura had said that they couldn't even see the people in the village, he however could, with quite some effort; pick out the largest of details on the faces of people he knew. It baffled him.

"Maybe Sakura-chan needs glasses?" he wondered aloud. She did read a lot in class. But, hadn't she passed the mandatory eye test in class during their last week with perfect 20/20 vision? They all had, save for the strange Hinata whose eyes were slightly above the rest of the class thanks to her family's kekki genkai, the Byakugan. Then why could he see what they could not? While pondering on these things he thought he spotted a small brown dot on the roof of the Yamanaka flower shop. He liked it there, it smelled nice, and the owners would ask him politely to leave, they wouldn't even threaten him! Realizing his train of thought was running off track he concentrated once again. Turning his eyes to the dot with enhanced fervor he tried to make out what it was. He'd heard of using chakra to increase your visibility at night so he channeled the ethereal substance to his eyes. Unbeknownst to him his eyes changed, ever so slightly, something amazing. The pupils first dilated almost threatening to swallow his iris entirely. When his once radiant blue eyes where almost completely black with pupil the black mass began to change shape. On the outer edge four points began to pull towards the center of his iris reveling, once again, his cerulean discs. When the four point finally met they left his pupil in a shape reminiscent of a cross or plus sign, although the lines were incredibly thin making his eye look almost completely devoid of pupils. Completely oblivious to the dull soreness akin to being fatigued in his eyes at the time, Naruto stared in awe as his vision became clearer and crisper and to his amazement the brown dot he had been eyeing with relentless interest seemed to blur out of focus and zoom to greet him. Before he had time to wonder what happened to dot refocused and he could clearly see his mission's target as if it where right in front of him. The cat was lying on its side idly pawing its own tail while enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Not caring, or noticing for that matter, that he had just changed his life Naruto jumped to his feet absent-mindedly canceling his eye's transformation, and with a loud proclamation of "YATTA!!" with his fist held high. He turned on his headset and began inform his team of the slippery cat's position. Meanwhile, In the Hokage's office Sarutobi looked up from his ever-present paper work into the now glowing eyes and smiling face of the Yondaime Hokage's portrait and, with a big smile, he said, "It is time." While the glow promptly faded, however the smile remained.


	2. Chap2 OH SHIT A FLASHBACK

This chapter will give you Naruto's heritage and pretty much when I decide to change his appearance. Don't worry no cliché fox ears or emo boy look, for what I have planned he will look completely different from most stories. Oh, and he starts his training. Don't get worked up I'm not gonna make him UBER strong, just really cool.

Disclaimer: I don't fucking own Naruto…he's a ninja, he'd kick my ass.

Naruto had just been summoned to the Hokage tower shortly after completing his mission with his team. Well, normally he'd be his normal ecstatic self at the idea of spending some time with his Oji-san. But, his mood was somber. He kept replaying what happened when they finished the mission.

**Oh shit, a flash back!**

A severely scratched Naruto returned a napping cat to the over exuberant wife of Fire Country's daiyamo. Hoping that the lazy animal would be neutered soon so that he could insult it more thoroughly the next time it inevitably escaped. An act that most found ridiculous, because, who in their right mind walks around exchanging insults with a cat? Well, he would insult it and it would scratch his face; this resulted in more insults and the vicious cycle would continue. 

_Upon completion Sakura bathed Sasuke in affection claiming that her Sasuke-kun had caught the cat single-handedly. Kakashi being their even minded albeit perverted teacher assumed that Sakura would make this claim, but Sasuke wasn't denying the praise so he guessed it was true. Naruto could care less about who caught the damn thing he wanted them to know about what happened to his vision. _

_The exclamations of his ocular feats fell on deaf ears though_

"_I did though! Hell, if it wasn't for me we'd still be looking!" The blonde Hokage enthusiast all but yelled._

"_Yeah right dobe. You just got lucky the cat obviously would go to the flower shop. The Yamanakas have koi fish in those small pools of water in their shop." Girly-McFaggington said._

"_Sasuke-kun is right Naruto!" Sakura chirped, or attempted to chirp it came out more like fingernails on a chalkboard._

"_But it was on the roof." Naruto deadpanned. **'He's right you know.' **Inner Sakura noted. Inner Sakura was promptly ignored._

_Sasuke seeing he was caught just decided to answer with a friendly "Well, they wouldn't let it in the store you stupid fool." Ah, the warmth of friendship. Well, friendship for Naruto anyway._

_Sakura, wanting to back up her love interest, decided to interject "Yeah, Sasuke is way smarter than you Naruto. Stop lying!"_

_Naruto may be a merciless prankster but he was defiantly not a liar. He detested lying, because when he was young the villagers would lie to him so that they could get under his emotional defenses and hurt him. So he was quite angry at his crush for this statement._

"_WHAT! I'm not a liar! Kakashi-sensei you believe me right?" Naruto was hoping beyond hope that his teacher would show some semblance a student teacher relationship and at least humor him. _

_The cyclopean perv just stated in, cool monotone, "Naruto, even if you had binoculars there is no way you could have possibly seen the cat from that height."_

_Naruto was crushed but he didn't show it. He just smiled his normal, goofy, smile and said in his normal, loud, voice "Yeah, I guess you guys are right. There was no way I could have seen it. Sasuke was right, I did just get lucky. Well I'm gonna go home now See you guys later." _

_With that he turned on his heel and dashed, no, all out sprinted back to his rat-trap apartment; his smile never leaving his face. Needless to say his three comrades were a little confused by his actions. He hadn't asked Sakura out on a date, he ran faster than they had ever seen him away from them, _he _ended the argument by accepting defeat, and he said that _Sasuke_ was right and _he_ was wrong._

_Something was very, very, wrong with Naruto, and it scared them._

Flash Back OVER 

Upon entering his apartment, with the full intention of falling asleep and trying to forget about his traitorous team, Naruto spied a note on his dilapidated table, a note with the Hokage seal on it. Opening the note in a normal fashion instead of just going ape shit on the envelope like he usually did he found it to be a summons. A mission maybe, there's only one-way to find out.

So that brings us to his current position of a leisurely walk to the Hokage tower to visit his favorite old person. He decided to be the bigger man and forget what his team said and to never bring up his eyes again. That way everything would be back to normal. With this line of thought in his head Naruto picked up his pace and slapped his stupid grin on turning it up to full blast. This act accidentally blinded an unsuspecting villager with the misfortune of forgetting his sunglasses.

Entering the Hokage tower and ascending the stairs he came face to face with his favorite secretary. Whoops, did he say favorite he meant his worst nightmare. Now, Naruto got glares nearly 24/7 but hers were a cut above the rest. When she sent that sinister stare his way it was like she was grinding her stiletto heal right into his balls. By an act of Kami his imagined testicular torture was cut short today thanks to the appearance of the Sandaime Hokage himself, miraculously changing the glare into a smile almost as big a Naruto's. Releasing his held breath and muttering an extremely soft "Deus ex machina" Naruto then proceeded to greet them in his regular fashion.

"Oi! Ohayo old man, secretary-nee-chan." He screamed with all the strength he could muster. The Hokage just smiled a warm smile; the now beaming secretary recoiled into an almost completely covert cringe at the thought of being associated with the demon. Sarutobi and Naruto pretended not to notice.

"Naruto-kun! Please, come in won't you. I have something important to tell you." The elderly master ninja said kindly.

"Sure thing gramps." Naruto said whilst passing the secretary's desk. Deciding to have a little more fun with her he just looked over finding her straining to keep the smile up while looking at him. They made eye contact and Naruto did, what he thought was the funniest thing in the world. He winked and made a quiet kissing noise while quickly puckering his lips. Needless to say the woman was mortified, and it showed.

Laughing like a madman he entered the office and closed the door. Taking a seat in front of the Hokage with a greatly improved disposition the Hokage began the conversation that would start Naruto's new life.

"She really hates it when you do that you know." or maybe not.

"Yeah, I know. But she's so fun to mess with. So what did you have to tell me Ojiji?" Okay, so Naruto started the true life changing conversation.

"Well Naruto, I'm going to tell you something that nobody in this village knows. And I want you to promise me you want hate me after I tell you." Sarutobi became instantly serious and business like.

"Sure thing old man." Naruto said with a smirk. He could barley contain his excitement at the thought of being trusted with such a great secret.

"Okay, Naruto do you know who your parents were?" At Naruto widened eyes, the movement to that edge of his seat, and his slow headshake he obviously understood where this was going. Sarutobi continued, "Well, your mother was an excellent ninja by the name of Kenshi Uzuki. She was an amazing ninja she and your father met while on a mission and their skills attracted each other like moths to a flame. Here is her picture"

He handed the young preteen a photograph of a beautiful woman in her late twenties with shining green eyes and long brown hair that reached the small of her back. She was smiling happily, the smile seemed at home on her face and blended well with the rest of her soft features. She seemed to be looking at the photographer instead of the camera itself. She was quite clearly pregnant.

"That picture was taken by your father three weeks before you were born. Uzuki was a great ninja and an even better person, always kind and helpful if not a little rough around the edges when it came to being polite. She was like a daughter to me. She died giving birth to you my boy, but before she died she wanted you to know that she loved you and your father more than anything else in her world. When she saw your for the first time she called you her little sunshine." At this time Sarutobi was on the brink of tears, recalling the memory was a soft spot for him.

Naruto had, much to his chagrin, let a tear fall onto the picture and faster than the Hokage could blink he rushed to clean the offending liquid away. Upon completing his task he looked at the picture more intently burning the image into his mind for the rest of his life. 'Kaa-san, I-I…. love you too.' He thought happily.

"What about my…dad?" He said the word as though it were in a different language. Never having one will do that to you.

This was the point that Sarutobi had been saving for the end for a reason. How would his surrogate grandson take the news? It was now or never. "Naruto, your father, the man who died protecting this village, was Uzumaki Arashi. The Fourth Hokage."

If Naruto's eyes could have gotten any bigger they would have ripped his head apart. The greatest hokage who ever lived was his father. At first it was ridiculous, but when he thought about it they did look almost identical. But…his own _father _sealed the Kyuubi inside of him. Why. Why would he do it to his own son, why couldn't he take someone else's child…that's why. He couldn't possibly do that to any other family, he could only trust his own son, his own flesh and blood to bear the burden. His father trusted him to take the burden and bear through it.

"Naruto?" The boy had been suspiciously quiet. His head was hanging low, shielding his face behind his golden hair. "Naruto, are you all right? I'd understand if you hated me for keeping this from you. But your father loved you as much as your mother did, sealing the Kyuubi hurt him more than any torture could." What happened next the Sandaime wasn't expecting.

Naruto lifted his head to reveal teary eyes and a true smile. "Thanks old man. Thanks for telling me. I understand why my dad did it. I'd have done the same thing. And I couldn't hate you for not telling me, heh, I never asked!" The old Hokage just stared at the boy, he wasn't expecting this, but he _is _dealing with the world number one most surprising ninja. While they were looking at each other they both started chuckling, than laughing, then flat out hearty guffawing.

Wiping tears of mirth, happiness, and a small amount of sadness away Sarutobi began again " Well that's good, but I have a gift from him to you; a box of them actually. He wanted you to have them when you unlocked your bloodline."

Bloodline? When did he unlock his bloodline? Furthermore when did he have a bloodline? While all of these thought swam and rushed through Naruto's skull Sarutobi had gotten up and retrieved a large box from behind the portrait of the fourth. The box was sealed so only Naruto could open it. He nudge the confused blonde in the ribs to get his attention.

"Huh? What, what is it?" Naruto clearly had forgotten what he was doing when the prospect of a bloodline hit him.

"Naruto-kun, open this box and all questions will be answered." The Sandaime swept his hand in an arc ending with it motioning our hero to the box. Naruto complied and opened the box releasing the several layers of defensive seals. In the top of the box was a medium sized scroll. Underneath it were many more scrolls. Naruto looked at the Hokage with awe and happiness in his eyes. Popular to contrary belief he loved reading, especially about things that interest him. If the library was the only building you were allowed into when you were younger you'd love reading too.

The Hokage saw the scrolls and with a sigh and a smile he walked over to his desk and pressing a button on his intercom he said "Ina? What do I have scheduled for today?"

"Nothing, you are free all day today Hokage-sama." The secretly evil secretary answered.

Naruto, being Naruto, decided to have some fun. Trying his best to impersonate his Oji-san's voice he yelled into the mic "Thank you Ina, that will be all, oh, and could bring me some coffee?"

"Of, course Hokage-sama." She chirped merrily.

The real Hokage and his young friend just shared another bout of laughter at the succeeded illusion.

"Well Naruto-kun, I think we should begin with this scroll here." He said while lifting a scroll labeled 'READ THIS FIRST' in big, red, letters. Cue sweatdrops.

Forgoing any form of formality Naruto rolled the scroll down the length of the room. It stopped mere inches from the wall, unraveling all the way. A twin exclamation of "So close!" could be heard from the room's occupants. The scroll read as follows:

_To Naruto,_

_Hey there boy! This is your old man Kazama Arashi! Yes, the greatest Hokage to ever live is your old man! But don't go blabbing it, you'll get fan girls faster than an Uchiha. Now the old man might have told you my name was Uzumaki. Well, this is true, Kazama is my fake name that I used in my ninja career so that my enemies wouldn't hurt my family if I ever had one. Only he and my perverted sensei Jiraiya know my real name. Oh, them and your mother Uzuki. Now, as per my instructions Oji-san should have told you who your parents were. Well we love you a lot so don't worry about that._

_Now in here you will find information about our bloodline the Takagan(Hawk Eye). It allows us to see much farther than any other being alive. This made us great assassins. You will also learn to increase your speed for our family's taijustu styles, Tamaken(Bullet Fist) and Kazeken(Wind fist). This package will also contain info on how to train in you elements. We know your chakra affinity is wind and lighting because we tested when you were born. There are many different things in here that will make you strong, but you need to work for it. No son of mine is gonna just get strength just like that._

_You should also get an inheritance. Now we weren't exactly rich per se, however we did have many possessions as well as a house that you can live in. It ain't a mansion or a clan house so don't get your hopes up. You should have enough money to last for quite some time( if you eat like me). If you eat like a normal person you could call yourself rich. You'll need to do missions but you can use that money for spending money and the inheritance for living money._

_Now get to reading boy! Bring the Uzumaki name to greatness! I know you can do it. Oh, and make sure you get yourself a girlfriend. Protecting people important to you will help you get stronger. (Plus your gonna need an heir eventually, why not work on it now?) _

Naruto sweatdropped while Sarutobi just laughed.

_P.S. Having a several sensei's who are experts in their own branch of jutsu would help a lot._

Upon spending the rest of the day reading his scrolls with his Ojiji Naruto learned quite a bit. The reason the Hirashin worked so well was because utilizing the Takagan an Uzumaki can hit a target from miles away with 100 percent accuracy with pretty much any kind of thrown weapon. The only problem is having the physical strength to do such a feat. That his where his father's unfinished blueprints came in handy. They were designs for long-range weapons as well as close ranged ones. Sarutobi said if Naruto was willing to study and learn how to finish and eventually build these weapons he could allow him to use his private workshop. Naruto instantly agreed.

He also learned how the Takagan worked. Many tubes are created, out of chakra of course, that act as semi-permeable membranes, allowing one form of matter in the air (such as, say, oxygen) out, while keeping another (say, nitrogen) in. Those tubes are then shrunk, quickly forcing out one while keeping in the other. This would serve the purpose of allowing total internal refraction, such as that of a fiber-optics cable (light travels at different speeds through different forms of matter, so a difference in matter is necessary). Thus, the light would be tunneled from far away to right in front of his eyes. And, as this is a bloodline, it was completely instinctual. So he would never have any nasty problems with chakra control.

The Tamaken style used the users speed to weave in and around the opponent's defense and then delivering a bone shattering first attack the user launches into a series of lighting fast combos never allowing their opponent any solace until they are defeated. The Kazeken style required the use of a special short range Shunshin that doesn't require seal to dart around the opponent using the extra speed to deal massive amounts of damage from all sides.

He learned the basics of picking off enemies from afar using his eyes he still had to get practice but he was pretty good with a kunai. But he found that if he truly wanted use his new found sniping ability he would need to increase his stealth and get some new clothes. The two packed the scrolls back up and Sarutobi gave Naruto a little cash to go buy some new clothes with. He also supplied him with the name of a store to go to for good ninja gear. The Hokage then promised that tomorrow after Naruto team training that he would take the boy to his new house.

Naruto also agreed that he would not tell anyone about his new secret family and bloodline unless he truly trusted them and felt they should know. Not many fit into that category.

Naruto dashed home as fast as his legs could carry him and he put the box away. Money in hand he ran into the market district to find Teuchi's Ninja Emporium. He found the place with ease by practicing using his eyes from the roof of his apartment complex. Inside he was left staring, mouth agape at the sheer amount of cool shit they had. Swords, knives, poles, shuriken, chains, clothes, med kits, everything any ninja would want. They seemed to specialize in weapons though. He couldn't even figure out where to begin.

With stars in his eyes he rushed to the counter. Behind it was a girl, who had twin buns in her hair, reading a magazine with a bored expression, not even noticing her customer. Something about her seemed familiar…but what was it. Where had he seen her before…then it hit him.

"Tenten?" he asked cautiously in case he had the wrong girl.

"Hmm, who's there? Oh! Hello, are you a customer? How do you know my name?" She asked wary of this weird boy in her family's store.

"It's me! Naruto! Remember we were in class together. I failed the exam." He mentally berated himself for describing himself through his failure.

"Naruto…Naruto…Narut-OH! Oh yeah! I remember you now you were the really loud, funny kid!" She exclaimed proud of her own recollection abilities. "So, Naruto what would you like?"

Naruto, still kind of shocked that she remembered him at all but happy that she thought he was funny at least, just responded to the best of his ability "I want new clothes please, thank you." He was confused as to why he came off as a complete imbecile.

Tenten just giggled at his response and ushered him through a doorway on the right "That's the clothes section, go right ahead!" He nodded and wandered over into the room labeled clothes and that's when he remembered something, he'd never bought clothes in his life.

Sticking his head through the doorway he voiced his dilemma "Ano, Tenten? Could you please help me, I've never done this before."

Tenten was a little bewildered by that question. One: a guy asking a girl to help him shop for clothes, **_LUDICROUS_**, didn't he know the hazards? Two: he's _never_ bought clothes before? Then she remembered that he was an orphan, he probably only had a few clothes that the orphanage or his foster family gave him. But, even then it was highly unlikely that he'd never gone shopping for clothes before.

"Didn't you ever go shopping with your foster family or the orphanage?" She only understood what she had asked after she had said it and saw the clear look of pain smear itself across his features before he wiped it away with a big, stupid, smile.

He realized she must have been suspicious and didn't mean to ask it in such a blunt way so he silently forgave here. Before she could apologize he just said in an even tone "I've lived alone since I was four, and I've only had the clothes that the hokage gave me. Don't worry about it though, if you don't want to help I can do it myself sorry for bothering you."

The news hit her pretty hard. Alone? Since he was four? How did he possibly live like that, and _he_ was apologizing to her. It made her feel low for bringing that up to him. So she decided to help as much as possible. "No, no, I want to help please I'm sorry."

"Really!? You'll help thanks a lot Ten-chan! And don't worry about what you said, I'm sure it was an accident." His mood brightened instantly at the thought of her helping him. She let the most miniscule of blushes cross her face at the name. No one called her that, she assumed it was because she was tomboyish and she loved weapons. She just dismissed the thought considering it in his nature to be nice to people who were kind to him.

He followed her through the isles saying that he wanted something to help him blend in with his surroundings as well as being comfortable. When they were done he four more jump suits; two with a green and brown forest camo pattern, a gray city camo pattern and a brown, tan-ish, desert camo pattern. When asked why he wanted the city and desert patterns he simply stated that a ninja should always be prepared, a philosophy that she agreed with fully. He also got three bucket hats that matched their respective jump suits to cover his blaring blonde hair. A pair of black steel toed boots, some black fingerless gloves with metal plates on top, as well as some under shirts and other necessary under garments.(he he…underpants)

He also found a cloak that had the appearance of leaves on it so that he could hide his body, face, and anything he was carrying… and it made him look "mysterious" he said. Tenten rolled her eyes, 'men'. After paying for every thing he asked if there was room where he could change into his new forest suit.

"Why? Afraid I might see something embarrassing?" Tenten laughed. The entire time they had been shopping they were joking back and forth getting to know each other again. She learned about his dream of being Hokage, a dream she thought a to be a might lofty but a nice dream nonetheless. She also found out that he was going to begin training in speed, she suggested finding her teammate to help him.

"No. I'm afraid you might see something you would like." He teased back. This was the first time he had ever truly flirted with a girl and found that it was fun and really funny. He learned that she loved weapons and was a crack shot with anything you could throw, he made a mental note to ask for help if he needed it. He also found that her team was taught by Maito Gai the over exuberant green beast of Konoha, he made another note to find him and ask for taijustu and speed training. And apparently she worked in this store with her father Teuchi Kento, losing her mother to childbirth. A pain that they shared and they sympathized with each other.

They both laughed heartily at their faux flirtation and she pointed out a dressing room. He went in and came out 15 seconds later wearing his new jumpsuit, his cloak thrown back over his shoulders like a cape and his forest cap covering all his hair as well as shading his eyes. His forehead protector had been tied loosely around his neck. Only a few rouge strands of gold were seen in front of his eyes, he didn't seem to mind. She had to admit, he did look mysterious. But, she'd never tell him that.

"How did you do that so fast?" she pondered aloud.

"Hey, when you wear a jumpsuit all your life you learn how to change pretty fast." He answered while shrugging. She only nodded; it is a _jump_suit after all. He handed her his old jumpsuit and she looked at it with mild disgust. It hadn't been washed very often.

"Naruto-kun, I'm touched that you would give me your old favorite jumpsuit but…how often did you wash this?" she asked holding the cursed piece of clothing at arms length.

Laughing at her actions he finally managed to speak "Ano, probably once a week. I needed it the rest of the time. And, I don't want you to have it. I want you to burn it please. That thing was gonna get my ass killed." She could only laugh; it was funny because it was true.

"Well, I gotta go train Ten-chan. I'll see you around." He slung his full bag of clothes over his shoulder while waving goodbye.

She waved back and before he could make it out the door she said, "Don't forget to come back."

He turned and smirked before saying "Of course! If I'm gonna be hokage I need all the gear I can get!" he gave her a thumbs up before leaving. Not noticing the second small blush he gave her.

'When he does that he looks almost as cool as Neji!' she thought 'No, impossible no one's as cool as Neji!' With a sigh she went back to reading just like before, only now she had a big smile on her face.

Back with Naruto he was walking back to his apartment with a true smile on his face. Today had been great! He unlocked a bloodline, found out about his parents, got lots of cool training material, and made a friend! He looked towards the fourth's face on the Hokage Monument and whispered "Don't worry dad, I'm gonna be great." While thrusting his fist towards his farther stone visage.

A/N: End chap! Huff, huff, I've never written so much in my life, but it felt good. Can't wait to get time to write more. Next chap he trains! Please read and review. I like it when you do. In case you can't tell it will be NaruTen. But I will do it slowly, and when I say slow I mean FUCKING slow. 10 points to anyone who can tell me where that's from, lol.

A/N: As of Tuesday January 9, 2007 I declare this chapter revised and reformed. I added shit and edited it as well. I think I will be doing this for all my chapters. I added an explanation as to how the Takagan works. MANY GREAT THANKS TO MASKED-CRITIC FOR PROVIDING ME WITH HIS UNLIMITED KNOWLEDGE…ummmm…YOUTH!


	3. Chapter 3 On to wave!

Okay now for more writing. Huh, never thought I'd say that with a smile!

I apologize I uploaded this and a few of the ending paragraphs were entirely in bold font I have fixed the problem. I hope.

Disclaimer: Naruto does not equal my property.

Naruto sat cross-legged and cross-armed on his bed. Staring directly at the box of scrolls left to him by his father. He had planned on going out and training today after his team meeting, but it seemed like such a waist to leave all of this here, not being read. That's when he was stricken with inspiration! He'd just leave some Kage Bunshin here and they'd take notes and give them to him when he came back! He was such a genius.

Forming his favorite seal he created an easy 20 bunshins all with identical smug smiles of self-satisfaction. "So, we all know the plan right?" they all nodded. Then in complete unison 21 fists were raised to the heavens and 21 identical cries of "YOSH!" could be heard throughout the entirety of Fire Country. Several people were deafened by the explosion of sound. Naruto promised to be back by six that night because that was when the Hokage could find time to show him his new house.

Quickly running out of his apartment his clones found themselves eager to read the scrolls when one turned to the other and asked, "You think he'll ever figure out what we learn, he learns?"

His doppelganger of a companion just shrugged, "He'll figure it out eventually".

"Well he better! I'm not gonna fucking take notes all day!" The other clones seemed to agree.

With a sigh the second clone just nodded "Fine, just make sure we get this all done." He reached into the box and went all the way to the bottom. He felt something that didn't feel like a scroll. Pulling it out he found a two small wristbands and looking further he found two more that were slightly larger. There was a note on one of the wristbands.

_Hey Naruto,_

_These are chakra weights. The more you put into them the more weight you body feels. They must all be in place for these to work. When all for are on and you put chakra in 'em they make your whole body feel the weight not just your arms or legs. Think of it like increasing gravity. It will make soooo fast! Be sure to wear them at all times, tha way your body is always conditioning. You will become a chick magnet in no time!_

All Narutos present did a collective sweat drop. Sighing again #2 got up and said simply "I guess I've gotta go bring these to him."

"Don't forget to tell him about the learning thing!" #1 shouted as #2 left the rattrap apartment. "Well fellahs lets get to readin'! I call the blueprints!" "No way! I had 'em first!" "Hey I want chakra control!" "It's mine!" This is gonna be a long day.

-Back with real Naruto-

Naruto had made his way to the team 7 bridge early because he wanted to try out his camouflage in the nearby trees. He crept up into a suitable tree and hid him self to the best of his abilities by wrapping his cloak around him. Surprisingly he blended almost perfectly. He had been there for about 3 minutes when one of his clones had come by with four things in his hands. Upon closer, Takagan enhanced, inspection he found them to be rings of some kind almost like sweatbands for your wrists. Because of their chakra link the clone was able to spot him and he made his way to his creator.

When he made it to his blonde God he handed him the weights and Naruto just said "What the hell?"

"Dispel me and it will be completely explained." The clone said tiredly.

"'Kay!" With that Naruto drew his fist back and slammed the wanna-be right smack in the face, this was not exactly expected by the clone but it should have been. Making said wanna-be disperse into a cloud of smoke. Naruto was slightly confused when all of a sudden all the information that the clone had wanted to tell him came rushing into his skull. He understood how the weights worked and he remembered the clone's conversation. This was an amazing revelation! With stars in his eyes he shouted "So Cool!" straight up to Kami's domain. Remembering his plan to hide he quickly recovered his old hidden position while lacing the weights on. He decided to activate them when he started training, he might put too much n and break the branch.

It had been about ten minutes when his 'secret' crush had finally made her way to team 7's meeting area. Sakura looked around and, finding no one, she sighed and took her seat underneath Naruto's tree. Naruto's breath hitched, he never got to see her this close before. Using his new eyes he inspect her face a little more. She did indeed have a larger forehead than most but what did he care; he had a larger inner demon than most. She had pink hair that no one else in the village had and he had blonde hair that no one else had…except maybe Ino, but she doesn't count. She had green eyes, he had …blue eyes… but that doesn't matter. It was a match made in heaven.

Poor, poor deluded fool.

While scrutinizing the object of his affection the lucky monkey started thinking about hers. She wished that Sasuke-kun was here with her and then they could fall in love without that stupid Naruto around to ruin her life. Unfortunately (or fortunately) she had voiced her opinion. He unknown watcher had felt an extreme pain right where his heart should be and his stomach felt awful. Sure, he had bugged her a bit but he didn't ruin her life did he? He decided that all he needed to do was think positive and it would defiantly work out. So he just decided to try that while tuning out Sakura's rant about how much she hated him. He was having a difficult time.

While the pink-haired kuno-bitch-i listed the reason why she hated Naruto and she loved Sasuke-kun. Said Sasuke was gloomily making his way to the field. In an attempt to ignore his "eternal love's" hate-rant Naruto used his family's ability to watch his rival. Sasuke was walking at a sedated pace to the meeting area; brooding all the way. The amount of angst seemed to flow from him in waves. Naruto could swear he saw a flower wilt when the black-headed avenger walked past it. 'I hope he never figures out how to use that as a weapon!' Naruto thought to himself.

Spending the next few hours in total silence was the hardest thing Naruto had to do. Watching his teammates he found that all he wanted to do was to tell Sakura-chan to stop obsessing over a jerk and to take said jerk and shake him until he stopped being so damn anti-social.

When Kakashi finally arrived he noticed something he only heard one cry of "YOU'RE LATE!" and "LIAR!" and it just sounded terrible compared to the fun sound he got out of hearing it with Naruto's voice mixed in; it really sounded much better than the banshee-like scream of his female student (It took a lot of self control on Naruto's part not to give away his position. But afterwards he was proud of himself.). That was another thing, he couldn't find Naruto at all. "Hey, where's Naruto?" came the expected question.

Before either of is other students could say, "who cares" a bundle of leaves seemed to fall from the sky in between the teacher and his students. They all took defensive positions when the bundle started to spin in place at a slow pace. It unraveled to reveal someone in complete camo and an almost blinding smile. "Right here, Kakashi-sensei!" the person shouted.

"…Naruto?" Team 7 said in three-part harmony. They were all surprised by his change in attire but what shocked them the most was that he was able to hide from all of them.

"Yup. What's up?" He was brimming with pride at the fact that even his _Jounin _sensei couldn't find him. 'Heh, I'm gonna kick so much ass!' he thought proudly.

Somewhere in the afterlife a blonde haired spirit smiled at the sight of his son evading the detection of his former pupil "He's gonna kick so much ass!" he stated proudly.

"Hn, so you changed clothes, so what dobe." Guess who said.

"Yeah, so what." Guess who's #1 fan girl added eloquently.

"Heh, you're just jealous teme!" The would-be Hokage retorted.

"Well, now that that's over I just want to let you know that the Hokage asked me to give you the day off today." Kakashi said with his up-side down "U" smile. Sasuke was mad, he could have been training to kill _him._ Sakura was ticked that her teacher made them wait for 2 hours to give them the day off. Naruto was ecstatic, he would have all day to train! No stupid missions.

"Sweet! Thanks old man, Kakashi-sensei!" With that he ran off into the forest to go train.

"No Naruto I won't go out with you!" Sakura exclaimed agitatedly. But to EVERYONE'S surprise Naruto hadn't asked her out. She looked to Sasuke to find him with his eyes wide. When he saw her looking at him he shook his head 'no' and walked away. She followed, of course, but she wondered why Naruto would suddenly stop, it wasn't in his nature to give up. Maybe she had been too mean to him or, 'maybe he heard me!' she gasped. She had said some terrible things about him, she didn't mean for him to hear her. It's not that she liked Naruto, it's that she liked all the attention she got from him that Sasuke would never give her, she didn't want two teammates who wouldn't talk to her.

Kakashi smiled under his mask while looking where Naruto had run off to; maybe his student was growing up.

While Naruto ran he mentally smacked himself, one: he forgot to ask out Sakura-chan! She may not like him very much and would have said no anyway, and he may have been hurt, but they were meant for each other, weren't they? Two: he forgot his training regiment scroll. Making a clone he asked it to go home and get the scroll and meet him back at his special training spot, an open area in the forest that he was sure no one would use. Unknown to him was the reason why no one used it, it had been designated as the 'Demon's Training grounds' by the adult population of Konoha.

Before entering his clearing he stopped and decided to turn on his weights. Using as little chakra as he could he pushed it to one of his wristbands. Apparently the least he could do was too much. The bands all glowed blue for a moment before the number 200 appeared on the band on his right wrist. His body crashed to the ground with a low thud. "S-s-shit, this is f-f-freaking heavy! But, I'm not going back! Only forwards from now on!" With his confidence soaring he forced himself off the ground slowly while making his way to the training grounds.

When he arrived he was shocked to find someone there training already. He was wearing a green leotard with orange leg warmers and had a black bowl cut hairdo. The most disturbing part of his image were his extreme eyebrows. They looked like fucking caterpillars! Shrugging off the intruder he decided to start his own training with stretching while waiting for his clone. It wasn't his property so he couldn't kick the kid out and the kid couldn't tell him to leave, well he could, but Naruto wouldn't listen.

The brushy browed weirdo kept punching the logs and Naruto kept stretching. The kid was too enraptured with his training to notice Naruto. After a few minutes of silence, excluding ,of course, the sounds of fist meets log, a few more people made their way to the clearing. 'Sweet Kami can't a guy find a training ground all to himself for once?!' he was roused from his thoughts when a feminine voice called to him.

"Naruto-kun? Is that you? What are you doing here?" Hmmm, sounds familiar. Where had he heard her before? Both he and the green guy turned to investigate and were met with a pink wearing girl donning two buns in her chocolate hair.

"Ah, Ten-chan! I came here to train! Why are you here and who's that with you?" he asked while continuing to stretch his legs.

"Oh, this is-" she began.

"Hyuuga Neji" interrupted her stoic, girly-haired teammate.

"And –" she began. But was once again interrupted by…

"THE BEAUTIFUL GREEN BEAST OF KONOHA MAITO-" the green beast began.

"GAI-SENSEI!" finished the weird kid. Who had run over to his idol. When he looked at them Naruto realized that they looked almost exactly the same. They started hugging and all hell broke loose.

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!" Needless to say Neji and Tenten were embarrassed beyond belief at their squad mate's and sensei's actions and they expected Naruto to be shocked or disturbed but when they looked over to see his reaction they were the ones who were shocked. He had a sad far away look in his eyes and a heartrending smile on his face while he watched the spectacle. Neji was completely thrown for a loop as to why he wasn't running away in terror while screaming something about his eyes. Tenten almost had the same reaction but then she remembered what Naruto had said the day before.

He has been alone his whole life; he probably wishes that he had someone that close to him too. Her heart felt sick at the thought of anyone being so alone that they were actually envious of Lee and Gai's relationship. She chose that moment to stop the sight before Naruto felt even worse. She coughed, very loudly, into her fist to draw their attention. It didn't work, so instead of trying it again and hurting her throat, she waltzed over and landed a blow directly onto Lee's head. That stopped the all-day hug fest fucking fast. Naruto mouthed a silent thank you to her and she just smiled while nodding.

"Yes, Tenten-chan what is it?" Lee asked with a happy voice while tears were brimming in his eyes.

"We have a guest my youthful student!" exclaimed Gai.

"We do sensei!? Where!?" Lee asked excitedly.

"Lee, he's been behind you the whole time" Neji deadpanned.

"Really!?" Turning around Lee spotted our hero who had a blank expression on his face. "Your skill in stealth is incredible! You must be genius to be able sneak up on me!"

"Nah, I'm no genius, just a hard worker." Neji smirked, Tenten just chuckled while slapping her forehead. He could have described himself in any other way, but nooooo he had chosen _THAT _particular expression. Almost as soon as he finished his sentence both Gai and Lee came to a screeching halt in front of him.

"YOSH! YOU ARE TRULY YOUTHFUL NARUTO-KUN!" Gai shouted. "THE FLAMES OF YOUR YOUTH BURN WITH SUCH YOUTHFUL EXUBERANCE!"

"NARUTO-KUN, YOU WILL BE MY ETERNAL RIVAL!" Lee exclaimed with equal vigor. "TOGETHER WE WILL SHOW THE WORLD THAT A HARD WORKER CAN EXCEDE A GENIUS!"

"Uhhh…. okay." Naruto said a little weakly, he hadn't expected this reaction in the least.

"YOSH! I WILL WORK HARDER THAN YOU NARUTO-KUN FOR IF I CAN'T I'LL RUN 1000 LAPS AROUND KONOHA!" Lee yelled.

"AND IF LEE CAN'T FINISH THAT THEN I WILL-" Gai was about to continue the ritual of extreme self-inflicted punishment/training when what Lee had said finally registered with Naruto.

He got right in Lee's face and started to yell back "LIKE HELL YOU WILL BUSHY BROWS! IF YOU BEAT ME I'LL GIVE UP MY DREAM OF BEING HOKAGE!" At this point he was sticking an accusing finger right in Lee's face. "I'LL TRAIN 10 TIMES HARDER THAN YOU AND THEN WE'LL SEE WHO'S THE BETTER NINJA!" Naruto had taken Lee's exclamation as an insult to his ability as a ninja.

"YOSH! NARUTO-KUN YOU TRULY ARE MY ETERNAL RIVAL!" Lee cried happily as he was raising a shaky fist while twin waterfalls of tears spouted from his eyes.

"YOUR YOUTH BURNS WITH A PASSION EQUAL TO MY CUTE PUPIL'S NARUTO-KUN!" Gai was in an exact replica of Lee's current stance. "PLEASE ALLOW ME TO TRAIN YOU NARUTO-KUN!"

"REALLY!? You'll train me/him!?" all gennin present asked/shouted.

"OF COURSE! ONE WITH YOUTHFUL EXUBERANCE SUCH AS YOURS WOULD BE AN HONOR TO TRAIN!" Gai 'said' happily.

Naruto was shocked, he said it would be an honor to train him, HIM! But surely this man was old enough to know about his…resident. "But, you don't…hate me?"

"Hate you! Why would Gai-sensei hate you Naruto-kun?" Lee asked in a hybrid indoor, outdoor voice.

"Yes, why would I hate you Naruto-kun?" Gai wondered aloud. Tenten and Neji both had the same question but felt no need to repeat it again. All Naruto did in response was take off his hat and remove his cloak which was obscuring his face a little. After revealing his striking blonde hair and his whisker marks he just pointed to his face. The others were confused but Gai instantly recognized him as the Kyuubi boy and understood his question fully now.

He had never really known the boy so he had never had an opinion about him. He had known however, about the hate and scorn his village had shown the boy. Upon seeing the quiet intensity of the pain I his eyes Gai was a little sick to his stomach at the thought of his beloved village treating anyone so harshly, especially one of its loyal ninja. He had heard about the boy through Kakashi, wait! "Isn't my eternal rival Kakashi your sensei? Surely he should be training you."

Naruto flinched a little, this guy obviously didn't want to train him, "Well, he kind of needs to train Sasuke, but I don't mind! I can get stronger by myself! But if you don't want to help me I'm sure I could find another sensei. Plus my dad said that I should get a few sensei's." Gai was pissed at Kakashi's actions, but he didn't show it because he would talk to _him_ later. Tenten, Neji, and Lee decided to ask Naruto about his odd question later.

"OH, no! Of course I'll help Naruto-kun! But because I am not your official sensei I need to know what you want to improve!" Gai said to show the boy that he truly didn't hate him.

"Really, you really will? THANK YOU GAI-SENSAI!" Naruto shouted while tackled the jounin to the ground.

After Gai regained his senses and both Naruto and Lee had calmed down he asked Naruto to list his needs. "Well, I need to work on speed and strength and accuracy."

"Lee and I can help you with strength and speed Naruto-kun. Tenten-chan can help you with accuracy, she's the best shot I know!" He proclaimed proudly. Tenten beamed with pride while she threw a kunai dead center into a target over 50 feet away. "Now, Naruto-kun, do you have any weights? They are essential to your training."

"Sure I do sensei! I'm wearing them right now!"

"EXCELLENT! May I enquire as to how much weight my new youthful student is wearing?" Gai asked eagerly. Lee was also interested in knowing how much weight his new rival was wearing. Tenten was mildly interested and Neji could care less.

"Umm about 200 combined I think." Gai was ecstatic that his new student could handle such weight. Lee has excited that his rival was wearing so much weight. Tenten was shocked he could have so much weight. Neji was skeptical that he could hold so much weight.

"Impossible, I see no weights on you. You're lying." Neji said in a cool control tone. As much as Tenten didn't want to label her new friend as a liar, it seemed like she had no other recourse. Besides Neji was always right. Lee couldn't help but be shocked that his rival would stoop so low. And Gai was just eyeing his pseudo student's wristbands.

Naruto turned to the stuck-up Hyuuga and said "I. Am. Not. A. Liar." with enough ice to freeze hell over. He held up his wristband, with extreme difficulty. "These are special chakra weights. When all four are on the person the amount of chakra they put in is transferred to weight that is spread out over their entire body. I am currently under 200 pounds of pressure at all times. I am not a liar." And with his explanation concluded he curtly flipped Neji the bird.

"AMAZING NARUTO-KUN! Can you please give me some of those weights?" Lee asked with stars in his eyes. Gai also looked excited at this prospect.

"Sorry Lee, as far as I know these are the only ones made and they were given to me by someone special who wants to remain secret." Lee and Gai's expression fell considerably. "But, but, uhhh I'll figure out some way to make more of them! It's a promise!" Lee and Gai perked up. Naruto had said that in attempt to cheer up his new sensei and rival, he didn't want them to dislike him, but he had no idea how to do that! But now he had to do it. Why did he always get himself into these situations?

"Really Naruto-kun you'd d that for me?" Lee asked, not many people were that kind to him, especially after just meeting him. They often said he was weird for some odd reason.

"Sure thing Bushy Brows. I never take back my words. It's my nindo!" Gai smiled at his newfound student's bravado and spirit. Neji was still fuming at the disrespect Naruto had shown him and Tenten had been trying to calm him down in hopes of getting on his good side, but she still smiled at Naruto's proclamations.

Shortly after that a second Naruto made his way into the clearing. Ignoring the strange looks from everyone in the clearing he walked up to the original. "Hey boss. Just got your scroll here, and some ramen. Figured you'd like something to eat so you can keep your energy up! Oh and number 2 says you need to make a replacement for number 1 cause you smoked him."

Taking the scroll and ramen while nodding he said, "Oh sure, thanks for the ramen." He put the scroll and cup on the ground and then proceeded to make another clone. The two clones marched off back to Naruto's apartment while the others were still gawking. "What?"

"What do you mean 'What'? What the hell was that thing!?" Tenten exclaimed.

"Naruto-kun here is a master of kage bunshin." Gai said with pride in his voice. He knew Naruto wasn't his official student but he would be teaching him so that was enough for him.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and blushed a little at the praise "Well, I wouldn't say _master…_buuuut I guess you could say that if you really wanted to. Hehehe."

"Naruto-kun using a kage bunshin you could accelerate your accuracy training 10-fold by practicing with ten bunshins." Gai said while thinking up ways this could help Naruto's thinking.

"Really?! Could it help with chakra control too?" Naruto ask-yelled.

"I suppose it could. Because chakra control is just learning how to control it and it doesn't change anything physically." To everyone's surprise it was Neji who had said this. "However your stores wouldn't increase you have to do that yourself."

"Hmm, I'll need to learn chakra control from somebody then…could you teach me Neji?" Naruto asked really not expecting anything from the Byakugen user.

"Only if you teach me kage bunshin." To say everyone was shocked was an understatement. No one had seen this coming. Naruto always being the first to recover simply smirked.

"Fine, Neji-hime." Naruto said stating his opinion on giving away his prized technique. Tenten was pissed that Naruto would insult her secret crush after he had just said he would help him.

"Hn, whatever Naruto no baka" Neji said with a smirk to match the blonde's. Another unexpected reaction. Gai looked to his new student and smiled 'He brings change with him.' He remembered when Iruka used to hate Naruto but now the scarred chunnin treated the kid like his little brother. Naruto was thinking something along the lines of 'is there a teme in every squad? Well…I guess he's better than Sasuke. But, if what Gai-sensei said is true than I can increase my chakra control and accuracy by 100-fold. But, they don't need to know that.' He wanted to keep some of his techniques and strength secret after all.

Naruto opened up his scroll while Gai was telling his youthful students their training regiment for today. This is what it read:

_Hey there,_

_For training to increase speed and strength use those weights I gave you. Make sure to do 100 push ups, pull ups, sit ups, 200 jumping jacks, 300 hundred punches with each arm into a log, 300 kicks with each leg into a log and 20 laps around the village. Then anything else your sensei should tell you. As for accuracy, just practice throwing, remember follow-through. Increase weight every week by fifty pounds and increase the number of each exercise each week by fifty as well, except for laps, increase those by five._

'He can't be serious!'

_P.S. Yes, I'm serious._

Insert MASSIVE sweat drop here 

'Hmm, he didn't give away his name or my relation to him, I guess that is so that my sensei can read it.'

"What do you have there Naruto-kun?" Gai asked while he walked over to the blonde dynamo.

"A scroll from my faaaaavorite Hokage!" 'Phew, nice save!' "He gave it to me to help with my training!"

"Well, this certainly does seem extensive for conditioning your body, buuut you need to learn a taijutsu style my youthful student!" Gai said while scrutinizing the scroll.

"Oh, I have my clones at home memorizing the forms and when they do I'll practice them after I get faster!" Naruto said.

"Good, well then, LETS GET STARTED MY YOUTHFUL PUPILS!"

"OSSU!" cried Lee and Naruto in unison. Tenten giggled at his antics while he tried a very slow and lopsided salute.

That night the Hokage paid Naruto's apartment a visit. In his pocket he had the keys to Naruto's new house and on his face he had a happy smile. He knocked on the door. After a few moments the sounds of someone rushing around and tripping, quite a few times, were heard. Naruto almost ripped the door off its hinges to reveal a chuckling Hokage. "HEY OJIJI!"

"Hello Naruto-kun. Excited?" He asked knowing full well the answer.

"Oh Hell Yeah!" 'Just as I thought' chuckled the old Sandaime.

"Well, shall we go?" Naruto then proceeded to, slowly, gather up all the things he had packed before the Hokage arrived, clothes, food…that's it. After saying good riddance to a place that held only bad memories they walked down the street toward the forest. After walking into the forest for a little while they came across a house. The outside was a light gray color with a green metal roof and green shutters on the windows. It was two stories and had a basement as well as an attic. They were three bedrooms with a bath in each. A living room big enough to comfortably fit about 20 people and it was adorned with three large couches, a recliner, a few bean bags, and a large television as well as a fireplace. The study had many books ranging from chakra control to advanced physics to sewing as well as a large oak desk and a few filing cabinets. The kitchen was large enough for a few people to be in there without getting in the cook's way; it had a fridge and a double oven plus a microwave. The dining room had a formal feel to it and the large table could seat as many people as the living room. The master bedroom had large, heated waterbed as well as a big TV on the opposite wall, a dresser, a wardrobe, and a walk in closet. The other bedroom was more of a kid's room, and the last bedroom was obviously a guest room, but it still was very nice and cozy. The bathrooms all had the essentials as well as tub/showers; the master bathroom however, had a Jacuzzi for relieving muscle stress. The basement was actually a large dojo-like area with special places for storage scattered around the edges, his clones could practice in here while he was out. The attic was just a normal attic, but it could be turned into an extra room if the need be.

The Hokage had had several gennin teams come and clean the house as well as to restock the kitchen and wardrobe. Naruto now had several pairs of casual clothes as well as formal attire. After inspecting the whole house Naruto was on the verge of tears. He hugged the old Sarutobi and thanked him profusely. When the Hokage finally had to leave, after having some ramen to celebrate of course, Naruto told him to come by and enjoy some time off every once and awhile. The blonde heir made his way into the master bedroom and, after a quick shower, drifted off into a happy sleep about ramen, training, and a crying Sasuke.

And so it started. Everyday after the team meeting Naruto would go meet team Gai and depending on the day would train with a different member. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday twenty of Naruto's clones would practice with Tenten. And every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday twenty would practice with Neji. While everyday aside from Sunday, he took that day off (You can't train all the time, even with his Stamina and healing factor you need to rest every once and awhile.); the original would train with Lee and/or Gai in speed and strength after doing his father's designated "warm-up" routine. Unknown to the others however was that Naruto would send an extra two-hundred to Neji's practice in secret watching with their takagan's from afar, as well as an extra two-hundred to Tenten's. This had four advantages:

One: He got extra training and improved faster.

Two: He learned how to read lips.

Three: He increased his chakra stores.

Four: He improved with his takagan.

While the first 120 clones would practice what Neji or Tenten were teaching. The other 100 would practice with different ranged weapons until he mastered them, then he would move onto the next. Currently he had mastered using a slingshot, a blowgun and he was currently training with a bow. This along with the extra 100 he always left at home to study made his already massive store even larger. He also had his clones use the Hokage's private workshop to build the weapons he used as well as his ammo for each weapon.

The others were astounded at his progress. They were also impressed with his will to keep going. He never once backed down from training and always made the effort to do one extra lap or ten extra kicks when it was clear that he was just as exhausted as them. This inspired the others to work harder as well as change each of them. Neji became a little less anti-social (emphasis on little, but it was still noticeable). Spending several days a week surround by 20 Naruto's who tell jokes and mess around because they have nothing better to do while practicing will do that to you. Tenten became a little more dedicated in her work and it showed through the fact that she too now wore weights. Lee had become more like Naruto, but not by much, but he was always working to surpass his rival so they pushed each other further and further. Naruto, after being around Lee and Gai, found the that people liked it when you were quieter so he toned it down a bit; he was still loud but not nearly as loud as he used to be. He also decided that when he was on a mission he should try and be quieter and more professional, it would make being a ninja easier and he would still get to be himself outside of a mission. Gai couldn't have been prouder. Team 7 was completely oblivious.

The only difference they could see was that Naruto had stopped picking fights with Sasuke…well, picked _less _fights with Sasuke; and asked Sakura out less. Kakashi was curious as to the reason behind the change in his student, he decided to look into it some other time.

Naruto was currently in the Hokage's office with his original team complaining about the D-ranked missions they'd been having. "Hey, Ojiji you know that I can handle at least a C-rank mission, Come on!"

Iruka was furious at the disrespect his little brother was showing the Hokage "NARUTO! Show some respect-" at this point Iruka rants and I don't remember what he says but we ALL know what happens.

Finally the Hokage caved and gave them their first C-rank mission. Escorting Tazuna to his bridge in wave. At this point the old drunk waltzed into the room. Stumbled being the correct term actually. "These brats are supposed to protect me? They look weak especially the short green one."

Naruto whose face was barely seen threw his cloak and hat just did the opposite of what everyone present thought he would do, "HAHAHAHA! That the best you got you drunken bastard! Come on hit me with something new." Everyone save Tazuna was completely slack-jawed. Kakashi had even been ready to sit on Naruto to stop him from killing the man.

"Hahaha, you got some balls on ya' brat. I like ya'. Glad to be working with you." He extended his hand the young ninja who shook it in a firm grip.

"The feelings mutual, 'cept I'm not into guys." They both started laughing at this point. Everyone else was still trying to recover when the Hokage began to laugh as well, then Iruka, then Kakashi. Sakura refused to laugh because Sasuke-kun wouldn't either. "Well, heehe, can we get going now sensei?" Naruto asked wiping away a tear of mirth while the laughter died down.

"Sure thing. Meet at the gate in half an hour with everything you need for a few days of travel." Kakashi said. 'He really has grown up' thought three adults in the room.

"YOSH! I'll get there before you Sasuke-chan!" 'Well, he's still 12. What did I expect.' Thought the same three adults. 'Heh, chan, classic' thought one bridge builder and **'How dare he call our Sasuke-KUN that!' **'YEAH!' thought one possibly naturally pink-headed kunoichi.

"Hn, yeah right dobe. Bring it on." Sasuke and Naruto both got into race positions and looked at Sakura expectantly.

"Oh! Uhh, ready…" Kakashi hurriedly opened the door, "set…" he pulled Tazuna out of the line of fire, "GO!" The only thing to register that either of them had left was the cloud of dust and sonic boom.

Thirty minutes later Naruto and Sasuke were seen running from opposite directions toward each other. They skidded to a halt and were mere centimeters apart in front of the gate. "I WIN!" they both shouted, quite uncharacteristically for Sasuke.

"I am obviously the winner dobe."

"Suuure you are Sasuke-chan. And why is that? Because you're an Uchiha?" Naruto said while rolling his eyes.

"Of course. My clan is better than your clan." Sasuke stated matter-of-factly.

"Says you! You are the only one of your clan left and I'm the only one of my clan left! That makes our clans equal!" Naruto pointed out with his hands thrown up to the sky, they quickly fell back down to his sides.

"Well, I have a bloodline" Sasuke was sure he had won.

'Damn, I'm not gonna reveal the Takagan just to show up Sasuke in an argument.' "Oh Yeah!? Then lets see it tough guy!" 'Please don't have it activated, please don't have it activated, please don't have it activated' he chanted in his head.

"Hn, like I'd show you." 'That should shut him up.' You know, you think he'd have learned by now.

"Yeah right! You just haven't unlocked it! Ha! Our clans _are_ equal!" Naruto yelled triumphantly. Sasuke just humph-ed opting to end the argument there. Naruto stuck his hand out to Sasuke. The Avenger just stared at it like it was a tentacle. "Good race teme. We should have another sometime." Naruto said in a friendly tone with a grin.

After a minute or so of deliberation Sasuke grasped it "Sure thing dobe. But don't expect me to go easy on you next time." Sasuke tightened his grip. Naruto reciprocated the action. This continued until they were both red in the face with exertion.

"Ahem! If you two are done holding hands I'd like to get home please!" Tazuna interrupted their little contest. If either of them had blushed it was hidden by the shade of red already on their faces, although with Naruto you could hardly tell already because of his cloak-hat combo. But Naruto was never one to be out done.

"But I thought you liked seeing boys hold hands old man." Naruto and Tazuna shared a small laugh and he gave Naruto a noogie. "Hey quit it your pits smell worse than your breath you old booze hound!"

"Yes, well Tazuna-san it would be best if you let Naruto go so we could get going." With that they all exited the village, never to be seen again. I'm just kidding.

While they were walking Sakura had made a startling discovery! "Naruto!"

"Yes Sakura-chan!" Naruto asked excitedly, maybe she would finally talk to him and they could get closer and then they would go out and-

"You baka! You forgot your stuff!" –or maybe not.

"Sakura's right dobe. I knew you couldn't match me without cheating." Why do they always think he lies or cheats? Oh yeah, he's a pranking _ninja_, it's kind of expected.

"No I didn't Sakura-chan, teme, I have it all right here." He pulled out a small scroll. "I sealed it." He had asked Tenten to teach him the basics of sealing and from there he read his dad's notes. He was well on his way to becoming a seal master, all he needed was a teacher.

"Hn, whatever" 'How could the dobe learn to do that? He must have gotten help! Whatever I don't need to seal things, I need to get stronger.' Seeing as how Sasuke was ignoring him Sakura decided to as well. Naruto simply sighed replaced the scroll and put his hands behind his head. Kakashi however was proud that his student was beginning to learn seals.

After walking for some time the group finally passed the suspicious puddle. Only Naruto and Kakashi noticed it. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi looked back to see Naruto next to the puddle, but he couldn't tell what the boy was planning because his cloak hid his body from view. "Yes, Naruto?" the rest of the group stopped.

"You know what's the best part about puddles?" Naruto asked while looking his sensei right in the eye.

Kakashi was smiling under his mask "No, what?" he put his book away and covertly pointed Sasuke over to Tazuna. He saw the signal and with a smirk quietly went over to get in a defensive position in front of the bridge builder. Sakura and Tazuna were clueless.

"Sometimes, if you try hard enough, you can make them scream like little girls!" Naruto said while jumping high and raining kunai and senbon into the puddle. And lo and behold the dreaded demon brothers came flying out of the puddle covered in the knives and needles screaming like, well, like little girls. Kakashi didn't move but Sasuke threw a shuriken nailing the chain connecting their gauntlets to a tree while Naruto threw a kunai into the hole on the shuriken locking the blade in place. "Nice work teme."

"Same to you dobe."

"How!? How did a fucking _Gennin _see through our perfect illusion?" The left most of the two brothers asked.

"Anyone who had taken the time to pay attention to the weather could have seen through it. There hasn't been rain in a week, and it's high noon! There is no way a puddle could have been in the middle of a hot, dirt, road you fucking moron!" Naruto exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Damn, he's got a point." The right brother said.

"That he does." The first brother affirmed.

Now we get into the point where Kakashi chews out Tazuna, they keep going, yadda yadda.(1)

So Naruto and the gang are walking a long the road. Sasuke and Sakura are flirting (Sakura bothering Sasuke to the point of contemplated suicide). Kakashi and Tazuna are comparing favorite scenes in Itcha Itcha. And Naruto is trying to drown them out while muttering something about perverted old men. When out of nowhere Kakashi grabs Tazuna and drags him to the ground "GET DOWN!"

Team 7 was eating dirt faster than Naruto eats ramen, and not a moment too soon, because a huge fucking sword flew overhead and embedded itself into the tree behind them. "Hahaha, aaaaaah Sharingan no Kakashi."

"Momochi Zabuza S-class missing-nin of the hidden mist. Known as the demon of the mist for his skill in the silent killing techniques as well as killing all of the participating genin in his year's genin class." Kakashi and, to everyone's surprise, Naruto stated in textbook unison. But then Naruto started to chuckle.

"What's so funny gaki?" growled the missing-nin.

"Hehe, nothing, nothing at all Mr.Momo." Zabuza's non-existent eyebrow twitched. "You know if you need eyebrows I have a friend who has more than enough to spare." At this point the vein that was throbbing before threatened to burst. Kakashi was trying so hard to not laugh, and a little while away watching in the trees Haku was giggling under her mask (2). The others were too afraid to do anything but gape at Naruto for being so bold, 'I knew that kid had balls but, this is ridiculous'.

Zabuza just disappeared into the mist he had created growling like an animal all the way. They formed a tight circle around the elderly bridge builder while taking defensive stances. If Sakura, Sasuke, and Tazuna were worried before they were utterly distressed now. Sensing his companions plight Naruto turned his head to them. "Don't worry you guys Kakashi-sensei will protect us, and so will I, believe it." He said while allowing them to see his carefree smile and flashing them a thumbs up.

"He's right you know" Kakashi said while sporting his usual "U" eye smile. Their statements visibly relaxed the three scared shitless members of the group.

'How could that dobe not be scared?! This feeling is so intense!' a certain avenger screamed in his head.

'Wow, Naruto sure is cool-headed right now' **'He also looks really cool too' **'yeaaahhhhheeeeeyyyy wait a minute!' please tell me you know who it is.

'This brat, heh, what a guy.' The drunken man was glad he had this kid to back him up.

'Very good Naruto.' Thought Kakashi, proud of his student's ability to shrug off killing intent. When he thought about it Naruto probably had to deal with this on a daily basis. He felt a little bad for ignoring his student, but he didn't have time to worry about it now.

Kakashi unveiled his hidden Sharingan and Naruto took that as a cue to activate his eyes as well. He pulled his brim down so that his teammates wouldn't find out just yet. "Ah, the Sharingan! At the beginning of our fight? I'm honored Kakashi." Zabuza's voice came from all around them.

'Sharingan?! Yes, I can use him to teach me how to use my own. Perfect.' Sasuke thought. 'If I survive' he added grimly.

"Kakashi sensei" Naruto whispered while straining his eyes to find any sign of the missing-nin.

"Yeah" Kakashi whispered reciprocating Naruto's actions in another direction.

"Can you teach me to do that voice thing?"

"I guess, why do you want to know"

"It's cool and I could use it"

"Sure then."

"Thanks sensei…he's right behind us isn't he."

"Yep." Kakashi went disembowel the nin behind him with his kunai and when he did instead of getting blood on his blade he was treated to water. "Mizu Bunshin!" He had just enough time to say before Zabuza slit his throat. "Its not over" Said the new Kakashi from behind Zabuza.

The trapped Zabuza chuckled "No, it certainly isn't" Kakashi's eyes widened as he felt a presence behind him, he turned slicing the clone's throat in the process only to be met with a boot to the face. He was sent soaring into the body of water behind the group where he was promptly encased in a water prison courtesy of Zabuza. "I expected more from the legendary Sharingan no Kakashi! HAHAHAHA!" His insane laughter was cut short when he had to move his head to avoid the arrow that went whizzing by his head. "Holy fuck! What was that!?"

"Let my sensei go Mr.Momo." Naruto said coolly, his eyes were hidden by his hat but you could practically feel the death glare he was presenting to the missing-nin. His cloak was billowing in the wind revealing the bow in his left hand and the six quivers facing diagonally to the right on his back. He looked **_very_** threatening.

"Lets see you make me twerp!" Zabuza made several Mizu Bunshin.

Naruto muttered a quiet "Kage bunshin are better." Before his sensei finally came to his senses.

"NO! Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura take Tazuna and RUN!" he yelled hoping beyond all hope that he wouldn't have to see another team member die.

"Sorry sensei, we can't do that. You guys know why right?" Naruto asked gesturing to his teammates.

"Because those who don't follow the rules are trash…" Sasuke began while coming out of his bush on Naruto's right looking towards said ninja-turned-archer.

"But those who abandon their friends are lower than trash." Sakura finished flanking Naruto on his left.

"Right." Naruto said while giving his sensei full view of his shinning smile and customary reassuring thumbs up.

"This is heart-wrenching and all but I have business to attend to!" Zabuza shouted as he sent his clones to attack.

"Sakura! Cover the client! Sasuke you're with me! Let's Kick His Ass!" Naruto ordered in an authoritative tone.

"Right!" Sakura said as she dashed to Tazuna's front.

"Hmph, Whatever, just don't get in my way."

"Shut up and fight teme!" Naruto yelled while turning his bow so that it was parallel to the ground. Reaching into his white quiver he pulled out four arrows, one in between each finger, and pulled them back on his bow. With a light twang the string launched the sharp rods directly into the hearts of four out of the seven charging bunshin. "Sasuke handle the rest I'll free Kakashi-sensei!"

"Whatever" Sasuke ran towards his cloned opponents, who were in a triangle formation (two in front one in back), wielding a kunai in each hand. He ducked under a horizontal zanbatou strike and followed through with a jumping uppercut to the clone's right side. The clone exploded into a shower of water and while he was still airborne the avenger span in mid air to deliver a devastating unconsciously chakra-aided spin kick to the clone on his left, ending it's meager existence. Using the remaining momentum from his kick he hurled both his kunai into the last target hitting it in both the head and the stomach. "Heh, cake." He said while smirking he went to look at Naruto's progress when he heard a thunder clap from his teammate's position.

While Sasuke had been fending off the three clones Naruto had retrieved an arrow from his purple quiver. The arrow had a seal on the metal arrowhead. He began to carefully pump chakra into the seal while he drew back the shot. He took aim careful not to hit his sensei. He had never used one of his special bolts before so he didn't know what to expect. The chakra flow had been a mere trickle of chakra but when he saw his sensei's eyes begin to glaze over a little from lack of oxygen he lost control and forced far too much chakra into the shot. He released the bolt and there by cut off the flow of chakra activating the seal on the tip.

The result was spectacular while at the same time frightening. When the bolt left the bow it was engulfed in crackling blue electricity. It soon resembled a lightning bolt and it took off like one too, thunder and all. Because the newly dubbed _ikazuchi boruto no jutsu_ (Thunder bolt technique.) was so close to the ground it tore up the earth that had the misfortune to be underneath it at the time. The speed was equal to that of an actual lightning bolt so the only way Zabuza could survive was if he disengaged the prison and dodged. He did exactly that.

'Whoa, what power!' Zabuza thought. "Who the hell is this kid?!" He screamed while looking at the tunnel of water that had followed the arrow, rising and surrounding it as it passed. He had no doubt that it hit the other bank. Kakashi, who had taken the distraction to ready himself again, simply chuckled.

"He's Uzumaki Naruto." Said Kakashi while sliding into a stance that was an exact mirror of Zabuza's.

"And I'm going to be the greatest Hokage ever!" Said Uzumaki shouted while thrusting his fist in the air. He then fell to one knee, winded. 'Huff, huff, I shouldn't be this tired! Arrg! Stupid, stupid, you used way too much chakra.' He berated himself inside his mind. In reality the blast from the arrow had sent him flying backwards and he had used a lot of chakra to block the blast as well as cushion his fall, this in conjunction with having his eyes activated the entire time, took a serious toll on his chakra. While they may not be as deteriorating as the Sharingan they still leeched chakra and he hadn't been using them enough to lessen the amount they use. 'Okay, you still have enough left you just used a lot at once without preparing for it. Neji said that this would happen if I did that. Just need to relax myself' He took several deep breaths while trying to find his center. The blast had blown his hat off; luckily no one had seen his eyes yet.

"Dobe! You all right!? You don't look so good." Sasuke said while he handed Naruto his hat, he was watching Kakashi's fight however so he could note Naruto's peculiar eyes.

Securing his hat over his eyes again Naruto used his enhanced vision to watch the fight more closely while saying "Aww, worried about me Sasuke-chan? I'm touched!" he then proceeded to sniffle for affect.

"Yeah that's it dobe." Sasuke said in a tone very similar to mockery.

"My Kami! A joke? From Uchiha Sasuke? I never thought I'd see the day!" Naruto prodded. Sasuke simply shrugged, smirk in place. Perhaps Sasuke wasn't such a dick gobbler after all. After a short while Kakashi won and Zabuza was carted away by the disguised Haku. Team 7 picked up their downed sensei and made their way to Tazuna's house for the rest of their mission.

When they arrived after they had dropped Kakashi off in his room they were properly introduced to Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, and grandson, Inari. The former was friendly and outgoing, she treated them all nicely. Inari, however, was a pessimistic little ass, who gave them the cold-shoulder every chance he got. Naruto could hardly care though, he got this all the time, 'heh, just like home!' he thought gloomily. He hardly had time to worry about that though, he was tired as all hell. He made his way to the men's sleeping quarters sealing all his equipment into his scroll, so that he was left with only his clothes on, and fell into unconsciousness almost before he hit the pillow.

Down stairs Sasuke was brooding, 'the dobe…he wasn't scared at all, and he took charge right away! That should have been me! How can I be so weak! And that attack! What power! I have to get stronger than Naruto or I'll never be able to beat Itachi.'

Sakura was worried about her crush, he seemed broodier than usual 'perhaps he's thinking about Naruto?'

'**Of course! Why wouldn't he be? You saw him back there didn't you?'** Inner Sakura offered her louder than necessary opinion.

'Yeah I did but, but, he didn't seem like Naruto!' Sakura thought, slightly put off by Naruto's sudden change. He was cooler and calmer headed than he was pretty much at any other time she had known him.

'**Shannaro! That's because he got serious when the fight got serious!' **Inner Sakura pointed out.

'Maybe if I was more like Naruto, Sasuke-kun would notice me!' Sakura thought hopefully.

'**I don't think-' **inner Sakura was silenced by thoughts of Sasuke and Sakura holding hands and other girly fantasies. Upon finding their guests in the living room, one brooding with angst rolling off him in palpable waves and the other sitting there giggling with stars and hearts in her eyes. Tsunami and Inari just looked at each other. Then they shrugged and decided that ninja were weird.

A/N: Oh man I finally did it. I doubled the amount of pages from last chapter. **PRIDE**. Well. I guess it's time for me to sleep but I'm glad I was able to do this in one day. That's right, all this, one day. You'll be happy to know that all have to do for that project my English teacher gave me is edit it a bit and print it out again and I'll be all done! Free to write on my own whims. The only problem is writing the boring shit. There's a lot of it, sorry loyal readers. In case I don't update before your holiday, I want to wish you a happy one! Mine happens to be Christmas so I'll be aiming to write another chap before then. I will try to make all chapters around this length. Please R&R I really love reading them. It's like getting real mail only better because I get it faster.

A/N: As of 1:47 AM on 1/7/07 I have finished editing chapter three.

1: For those of you who actually LIKE reading these boring parts over and over again, I'm sorry but they ARE boring and I AM writing the story so if you complain I'm just gonna say this MY fic, MY rules; fuck YOU. For those of you who are like me and want to get to the meat of the story I feel for you so I'm dong my best.

2: yes, HER mask. One: there is no way Haku is not a girl. Two: NO she will not be Naruto's pairing. Three: there is no point in keeping her a mystery from the reader because we all know she's coming.


	4. Chap4 OH SHIT CRYING

HEYYO! I'm back with more. I hope you like this chap. I will try to do Some Naru/Ten moments but here's the thing. I NEED to get them away from their respective crushes. They will not have a full-blown RELATIONSHIP until after the time skip. The canon time-skip not any of my time-skips.

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, but that one Japanese guy's.

Currently Naruto as well as the rest of team 7 had just witnessed Kakashi's explanation of tree climbing. But Naruto had something to say about it.

"Ano, Kakashi-sensei?" He asked slightly nervous.

"Yes Naruto?" Kakashi asked thinking Naruto might not be able to do the exercise.

"Uhmmm can I talk to you in private for a second?" After walking a short ways away from the rest of team 7, Sasuke glaring holes into Naruto the whole time. When they were out of earshot Kakashi spoke up.

"Now, Naruto I realize you may have some trouble with this but I'm sure you could get it eventually." While Naruto perked up at the vote of confidence he still shot a nervous look towards his crush and his rival.

"No that's not it, it's just that, I can kind of, already do this with my eyes closed, balancing a bowl of soup on my head without spilling a drop." Naruto said now rubbing the back of his neck while looking at the blade of grass in-between his feet.

Kakashi's eyes widened but then he realized that Naruto must have gotten training whenever they lost track of him. He resolved to finding out who after this mission was over. "Well, can you do water walking?" Naruto nodded but he followed it up by saying that he could still use a lot of practice before he moved on. Kakashi then clapped once and raising his voice to address everyone present said, "Okay, Sasuke, Sakura, you two start with the tree climbing, Naruto, you find a lake. I'll check up on everybody's progress from time-to-time. Now get to it."

Sasuke was visibly shaking with rage (Sakura was slowing inching away towards a tree a safe distance from the soon-to-be ground zero). Why did the dobe get different training? He obviously wasn't ready for this easy exercise so Kakashi must have sent him to do something even easier, yes, that's it, that's it exactly. There is no way the dead last could be better than him. Smirking at his deduction he sent a condescending stare in Naruto's general direction.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, he barely got out of that one, he was sure Sasuke would explode. While he didn't necessarily get along with the Uchiha he still saw him as a friend and didn't want to lose him.

Their training continued for several days, ever wary of an attack from Zabuza or his hunter buddy. One day after training, during dinner, while everyone was talking about the mission Inari decided to state his opinion on the matter.

"Why do you even try!? Gato will just kill you all!? You should just give up!" He shouted standing up. Needless to say this outburst shocked everyone. But Naruto simply brushed it off.

"That's because, I'm different than you. I never give up, no matter what." He said leaning back in his chair.

"Shut up! You don't know! You've never had a rough life! You are always being stupid and joking around! I'm not like you! You don't know pain!" Inari retorted tears freely falling from his young face. Now, Kakashi may not have known Naruto well, but he knew him enough to know a little bit about his life, and of course his temper. He prepared to incapacitate his student if necessary, keeping his eye trained on the blonde chameleon. The rest of team 7 was oblivious.

"I, Don't know pain?" he began to laugh "_I, _Don't know pain?" he laughed harder "I DON'T KNOW PAIN?" he threw his back and begun to bellow laughter. Sasuke and Sakura were defiantly put off by this display. Kakashi tensed, this might get ugly. Naruto's fits of laughter died down Inari staring incredulously at him the whole time.

"Inari, I've known more pain than most people will know in their entire lifetime." Naruto said locking eyes with the sad boy while sporting a sad smile. "I'll never forget the hollow feeling of being alone, or the pain of hatred, but you have your mother and grandfather her for you. Your father wouldn't want you to waste your time crying over him." At this point he had stood up and was making his way towards the door.

"If you have felt so much pain how can you smile?!" Inari shouted.

"The life of a shinobi is short, Inari. It's kill, or be killed. I live my life to the fullest. But, I don't cry, my tears have run out long ago, there's no place for tears in the life I want to live. So cheer up, and honor his memory by making your life full." He said over his shoulder. With that he left.

Sasuke was silent but his head was hanging low. Sakura was shocked at how much sadness could flow through his voice and his eyes. "Naruto…is that true Kakashi-sensei? Is his life really like that?" she asked looking towards her sensei to find him gazing into his tea.

Sighing he answered, "Unfortunately, yes, it is Sakura. I don't know personally but I can assure you, he was being modest when he said that he had felt more pain than anyone should. He knows what it means to be strong." Sakura now felt rather guilty about her treatment of the blonde. Inari was just looking at the spot where Naruto had entered the forest through the window, a look of awe plastered onto his face. Tazuna stared into his sake and his daughter let a few unseen tears fall into the dish she was cleaning for the boy.

'He knows what being alone is like, just like me. Maybe…maybe he isn't such a dobe after all.' Sasuke was thinking. There was an awkward silence after that.

-With Naruto-

While he stayed calm in the house he had been forced into a blind rage by the time he entered the forest, the kid brought up some bad memories. While he wasn't about to get mad at Inari he still had to relieve some pent up emotions. He began pacing back and forth, throwing senbon into a tree about 50 meters away from him, without even looking, cursing and kicking rocks this way and that. If one were to look at the tree he was currently punishing though, they would see that all the senbon had hit in the same place. Not only that but each needle had been so accurately thrown that they would split the one before it directly down the middle before halting in the tree.

Once he had run out of the needles he began to punch the tree next to him repeatedly roaring and shouting the whole time. When he had finally run out of steam he was pretty sure he had broken both his, currently bloody, hands. Resting his back against the, now dented and partially bloody, tree he slid down and fell into a dreamless sleep.

-The Next Morning-

Haku walked merrily down the dirt path, quietly humming to herself while keeping an eye out for herbs. She heard a faint snoring, looking to the left she saw a pile of leaves. Upon closer inspection she found it was the cloaked boy who had almost killed Zabuza. Looking around she spied the senbon tree; her eyes widened a bit, had the boy done that? He was better than her! She quietly approached, her training making her silent and incredibly deadly. Her hand slowly reached towards his neck, only one swift movement and his threat would be erased. Only, one, swift, twist…she couldn't do it. She didn't want to kill him, although she knew she might have to eventually.

Instead of twisting his neck into an unnatural angle she opted instead to slightly shake him. "Hey, wake up, you'll catch cold if you sleep here." She said trying to awaken the snoring rock that was Uzumaki Naruto. He grumbled a little and sank a little lower into his cloak, mumbling something about five more minutes. Haku smiled at his cute antics. When he finally woke up he spotted the girl and smiled.

"Hey, you wake me up neesan-chan?" Haku simply nodded. "Well, thanks, I might have missed breakfast." He said while chuckling a little, she joined him, he really was cute. "You picking herbs neesan?"

She tilted her head and said, "Call me Haku, and yes I am. How could you tell?" she asked with a small smile.

Naruto blushed a little at the VERY cute smile she had. "Oh, u-um I could s-smell them. I've got a pretty good nose." She accepted his answer, and they began to pick them together. She started to talk with him about the importance of protecting your precious people and when she asked him if he had anybody to protect his head hang low having his hat block his face from view. She thought she might have offended him, or hit a soft spot, and technically she was right.

Who did he have to protect? Who was precious to him? Iruka-sensei? Lee? Tenten? Sakura? Old man Hoka…he smirked under his shadowy veil. He looked up and met her wary gaze, and answered her question with a happy smile "I sure do. I'm going to protect my whole village. I'll be the greatest Hokage because if protecting people makes you strong, than I'll be the strongest ninja in the world! I will protect everyone!" He said his smile growing with every sentence. Haku was a little taken aback by his proclamation of his goal but she too found herself smiling.

"That is a good dream Naruto-kun. You can do it. I believe in you." He was blushing again, she believed in him! Not many people ever took his dream seriously. A comfortable silence crept over the field and they continued to pick herbs. "I think that I have enough now Naruto-kun. Thank you."

"No problem Haku-chan. Anytime." He replied with a thumbs up. She smiled and while she began to leave she left him with one last tidbit of information.

"Oh yes, by the way, I'm a boy." She said while smiling waiting for his shocked expression. She knew how she looked but she didn't want to be treated like a woman in a fight. What she wasn't expecting was his laughter.

"Hahaha! Don't, heh heh, don't even try bullshitting me on that one! When I said I had a good nose I meant it." At her confused look he continued, "I can smell your pheromones, they are clearly female. Besides no _guy _could EVER look that cute. Ever." She blushed a little at the unintended compliment. He got up and prepared to leave, but he also had a little info to tell her, "Oh, and tell Zabuza to get well soon. Courtesy of Uzumaki Naruto." He chuckled at her shocked expression.

"Yes, you have a very unique scent Haku-chan. You smell like…snow. It's nice." His back was turned and he was already walking away but had he been facing her he would have been rewarded with a fully blushing Haku, with cross-dressing action!

-Time Skip, Like, 2 days, or somethin'-

Team 7, minus Naruto, had gone to protect Tazuna at the bridge leaving Naruto at the drunk's house completely drained from training. He was roused from his dreams of ramen and hokage hats by screams about someone killing herself if they touched her son. Dispelling his weights her silently made his way downstairs to asses the situation.

Inari charged the two thugs holding his mom hostage, he may die but he was going to at least try to save her, that's what his dad would have done, what Naruto would do. Right before the two would-be samurai could dice the boy a green blur had passed right in-between the two. Inari stared wide-eyed as the two kidnappers fell to the ground, unconscious. Looking up from the knocked out thugs his breath hitched, there stood the boy, no, the hero, who had suffered so much only to smile. Naruto stood there back turned, fists down by his sides, his cloak billowing in the wind and his brim pulled down low to cover his eyes. Can anyone say badass?

Naruto looked at Inari and smiled, "You did well Inari, you stood up for your beliefs and were brave in the face of danger. Good job, I'm sure your father is proud. But, if these punks are here than that means there's trouble at the bridge. Get the villagers, were gonna need an army." He said while unsealing his bow and quivers.

Inari gave a salute while he beamed at his new hero, "Sure thing Naruto-teichou(captain)!" With the plan set in motion Naruto sped off towards the bridge hoping beyond hope that his friends were still all right.

When he arrived he was treated to the sight of dome of ice surrounding his 'eternal rival' as Lee and Gai would say. Thinking quickly he swiftly reached into his red quiver and rapidly fire several of the special arrows into the sky with blinding speed he said "**Heki No Akuma** (1)". The arrows flew high into the heavens each becoming completely engulfed in a huge flame, and each descending toward a mirror. It truly did look like Hell had rained its flames down unto the earth. The streaks of flame screaming down creating the very image of the devil's tears they were named after. Naruto had arrived and there was hell to pay.

37 mirrors, 37 arrows, 37 hits. Each arrow hit a respective mirror and, to Haku and Sasuke's amazement, they actually cracked the mirrors. Haku quickly repaired the damage. Cursing Naruto sprang into action jumping in front of his friend as to alleviate some stress from the current pincushion gennin. Sasuke, while put off that Naruto was able to do more damage than him, sent an appreciative nod to the blonde archer. Naruto just smirked and said, "Well, I couldn't have you die before I kicked your ass, could I?"

Sasuke shook his head while smirking, he had activated his sharingan earlier and while they were talking Haku had taken the opportunity to fire a few senbon. Watching their trajectory Sasuke pushed Naruto out of the way taking the "fatal" hit himself. He fell to the ground, limp, and seemingly lifeless. Naruto could only watch in shock, as his friend fell, dead, because he was too weak to protect himself.

Haku began to try and console him on his loss but he wasn't paying attention. Rage, pure rage, flowed through Naruto's veins. His heart became an organ of anger, hate, and remorse. A burning sensation filled his body and his soul as a strange red chakra began to freely flow from his tenketsu. His appearance warped, red slitted eyes, deeper whisker marks, clawed hands, the works. He rushed, faster than the frost maiden could follow, towards the sent of snow. Smashing his fist into her masked face destroying the mirror and sending her flying. Then to prevent it from happening again he flickered from mirror to mirror destroying each with a vicious punch or devastating kick.

Haku picked herself up and watched in horror as he walked, slowly changing back to his original form, towards her. She was injured; there was no denying it. She had failed. "Kill me, Naruto-kun. I'm useless now… I've failed Zabuza-san. I've killed your friend take your revenge and kill me." She said, not a trace of fear in her voice, only disappointment.

"Your wrong, he's not dead." He looked back; she was shocked how could he tell? "You saw the senbon in the tree when you found me right? I did that; you think I don't know a thing or two about anatomy? Sasuke will be fine in a few days…and so will you."

"No! I've failed my master! I have no use! I must be disposed o-" she would have finished if Naruto hadn't slapped her. She was wide-eyed in shock. He grabbed her by the collar with both hands and brought her to eye level with him.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN!? YOU HAVE YOUR WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF YOU!" He shouted shaking her a little.

"Naruto-kun…I have no regrets, but Zabuza was my life. His dreams were my dreams. I've failed him." She replied a little teary eyed.

"Don't you get it? Run, Haku! Get Zabuza and RUN! You can still achieve your dreams! You don't have to die here! I. Won't. Kill. You." He said loosening his grip.

She could only stare; he was giving her a second chance. Zabuza and her could still achieve his dream, she still had a chance! She- her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of thousands of birds chirping. She and Naruto looked to see Kakashi through the thinning mist holding a glowing ball of lightning preparing to charge a currently incapacitated Zabuza.

"ZABUZA!" Haku screamed she created a mirror of ice and warped to his side. What happened next happened in slow motion to Naruto. He began to run, his arm outstretched, attempting to catch her, to stop her from what she was doing. Even without his weights on he was no match for her speed. She took the chidori full in the chest.

"HAKU-CHAAAAAAAN!!!!" He screamed his voice filled with anguish. He made it to the trio only a moment after impact, and he shoved Kakashi aside forcing his arm out of her. He cradled her in his arms. Tears threatening to spill, "Haku, Haku! Come on! You can make it, come on!"

The girl merely smiled at him her eyes already glazing over. "I'm not going to make it Naruto-kun." She coughed violently, spraying blood on his face, not that he cared. He pulled her closer grasping her in hopes that if he held tight enough she wouldn't leave. Kakashi and Zabuza didn't have the heart to interrupt the spectacle.

"Haku-chan…" Naruto muttered into her hair. She pulled her head back slightly to look him in the eyes.

"Yes?"

He sniffed back tears. "I-I'm s-sorry I hit you before."

She managed a small smile while she chuckled. "I-it's all right Naruto-kun." He smiled. Glad he could make her smile in her last few moments. "Naruto-kun, make me a promise."

"Anything! Just name it!" He said in desperation.

"Make me the promise, that you'll be the greatest Hokage the world has ever known, but don't kill your heart to do it. For me, live a life with no regrets, like I have." She said smiling, cupping his cheek in one hand.

"I promise. And I never b-break those." He said while holding the hand on his face. She then leaned forward, and before he could tell her to save her strength she kissed him right on the lips. A short chaste kiss, but a kiss nonetheless. He was utterly stunned, that'd never happened before (he didn't count the Sasuke incident).

She smiled at his expression before she whispered in his ear, "Good-bye, Naruto-kun." Her hand fell from his face, and hit the pavement of the bridge with a dull thud. Her heart stopping after it had labored through the massive injury to her chest. Naruto completely broke down; he pulled her body close and sobbed into the crook of her neck. Kakashi couldn't help but feel immensely guilty for doing that to his student. Zabuza didn't shed tears but he felt, defeated, angry, and sad.

That's when the true enemy made his appearance. Gato's cackling laughter could be heard throughout the bridge. "So, Zabuza it seems your "tool" has out lived its usefulness. Heh, I was gonna kill her anyway, after I had a little fun that is. Hehehehahahaha!" He then began to reveal his plan about pitting them against each other and killing the survivors but Naruto wasn't paying attention. After he had insulted the valiant ninja in his arms Naruto began to feel the anger return even stronger than before. Kakashi had thrown Zabuza a kunai and the demon had begun his charge but Naruto also had plans. Taking a kunai in his mouth as well as his left hand he hefted Zabuza's zanbatou in his right with ease he didn't intend on keeping the giant fucking thing he just wanted to cause a lot of pain, to a lot of people. The cleaver seemed to be the best tool for the job.

Then the two demons charged the group of mercenaries, slaughtering their way to their target. While Zabuza was tired and injured from his battle with team 7's sensei Naruto was practically at 100 percent, but also being fueled by his Kyuubi influenced rage. He stabbed one thug in the back of the skull, slicing the throat of another with his mouth's kunai while he disemboweled one on his right with the massive cleaver. Zabuza was fairing slightly worse taking several mercenaries down but receiving his fair share of wounds. When they finally made it Gato he had shit himself from the combined killing intent. Zabuza charged while Naruto jumped in the air.

Using his chakra and wind affinity he began to spin rapidly, gaining speed with every rotation. He added a few more directions to his spin making him a ball of death. Zabuza saw this and he rushed behind the short tyrant and kicked his soon to be corpse into the Naruto blade ball while he and the blonde Jinchuriki said in perfect unison "**KEN HANABI!!!**"(Blade Fireworks). The results were stupendous while horrific.

Upon enter the spinning storm of blades Gato was introduced to a level of pain he didn't know existed. For the first few moments none of the cuts were fatal, but extremely painful, almost as if Naruto had planned it that way ( :) ). Gato announced his pain through his blood curdling screams. Then once the blades began to hit full force when he neared the center his body was torn asunder and each part of him has sliced, diced, and filleted into bloody confetti. Naruto landed, stopping his spin directly as he set foot on land, and the bloody rain that was once Gato fell around him only making him look that much more demonic.

The remaining bandits felt a little weak in the knees but once Zabuza dropped they got some confidence back. They began to make threats, so Naruto made his favorite seal. Soon no less than 20 Narutos, each wielding a replica zanbatou, appeared next to their master. Kakashi, seeing this as a moment to step in, created some kage bunshin as well. The thugs still felt tough thinking neither had enough fight left in them to continue decided to try their luck; but before they could take a single step an arrow flew through the air and embedded itself in the ground at their feet. They looked up to find Inari with an actual army of villagers. Naruto spoke up "Leave, or you die with the rest of the scum!"

The bandits lost all confidence and ran like hell out of there. The villagers cheered their victory over Gato and Naruto just gave Inari a thumbs up for a job well done, an action the young boy reciprocated. Naruto dropped the cleaver and made his way over to the bridge. He stopped to pick up Haku. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, can you get Zabuza? They deserve a proper burial." Kakashi could only nod while he hefted the deceased devil and said devil's huge sword.

'How could Naruto wield this like it was just a kunai!?' He screamed in his head.

After they buried the two missing-nin they paid their respects, but Naruto stayed. He stayed well into the night finally taking one item with him before he made his way back to the house to clean himself and sleep. He brought Haku's broken mask as a reminder of his promise to the girl who opened his eyes to true strength.

Soon after, with team 7's help, the bridge was finished. The four ninjas said their good-byes and made their way home. Naruto promising to return someday to see how everyone had faired. After very little deliberation the name was chosen for the bridge, "The Great Naruto Bridge. Named after the hero of wave, a boy who could inspire nations, Uzumaki Naruto." The inscription on either side of the bridge read.

The trip home had been miserably quiet; Naruto had been deep in thought thinking over his promise. No regrets, but that didn't mean he had to perk up instantly. His solemn demeanor had even influenced Sakura to not pester Sasuke, a fact that Sasuke silently thanked the blonde for. Kakashi was thinking over his student's reactions to the seriousness of their previous situation.

'Sasuke fought and, to protect Naruto, took several fatal looking senbon in his stead. Perfect. Sakura had done exactly as I told her and stayed back to protect Tazuna, even after Sasuke was in danger. Excellent. Naruto…Naruto suffered loss, and had his first kill…make that kills, I have to talk with him about it.' As if on queue Naruto walked up and pulled on Kakashi's sleeve, pulling his attention out of his thoughts and his book.

"Yes, Naruto?"

"Kakashi-sensei…I lost control back there…I don't want to lose control again. When I killed those guys…I knew they deserved it for what they had done, but…I still feel sick. I'm not a monster? Am I?" Naruto said with remorse in his eyes.

Though he didn't show it Kakashi was proud of all of his students for their actions in the mission, but right now he was proudest of Naruto for showing the determination to take control of his 'condition' and for letting him know that his student wasn't some mindless killer. "Naruto, if you ever feel like that again, remember to fight it, remember that you don't its power to be strong. And…killing will get easier…but you should only kill those who you feel truly deserve death. Those men…they truly had deserved it…you did the right thing. I'm proud of you."

Naruto managed a small, true smile up to his sensei. "Thanks, I needed that sensei." Naruto then began to perk up a little and it did wonders to relieve the group of the malaise that had settled upon them from the end of their battle. Kakashi gave himself a pat on the back for helping his students get into a somewhat normal groove again. Upon seeing the questioning looks from his young charges he realized he had actually been patting himself on the back. When he told them what he had been doing Sasuke and Sakura had blank stares and sweat drops forming on the backs of their heads while Naruto just sat their.

He started to chuckle, then laugh, then the rest of the group began to laugh just as hard. They had already been near Konoha but when they finally got the gate the guards were treated to a peculiar sight. The last of the Uchiha was leaning against the demon brat, who had his arm around the Kunoichi of the year's shoulders, while the legendary copy-nin, Sharingan no Kakashi was holding his fore head in his left hand while his head was thrown back following the group up. The strangest part was that they were all laughing like lunatics. One guard looked to the other and asked the obvious question "What the hell is so god dammed funny?" The other guard simply shook his head telling his companion that he'd better not ask. Some ninjas were just really fucked up.

A/N: Okay so I know I said that I'd try to make all my chapters around 40 pages in word, but, I feel that this is a perfect place to stop and going forward would just ruin my mojo right now. But fret not because as soon as I post this I'll begin to write the next chapter. It is my plan to stay up all night tonight so that I can sleep on Christmas Eve. I can NEVER sleep on Christmas eve. So please R&R I look forward to your reviews, even though this chapter was absolute SHIT! For those of you who wanted more NaruTen moments they're coming up in the next chap. The Chunnin Exams! HAPPY NOW LEPUS IRATUS?

(1): (I think it loosely translates to 'tear of the devil', I don't know how to do plurals so if anyone could tell me that would be great.)


	5. C5 Yay Most of the Chunnin Exams!

Okay like I promised I started this literally IMMEDIATELY after submitting chapter 4. So here's chapter 5 the Chunnin Exams.

No, I don't own Naruto. Surprising isn't it? No, not really, now that I think about it.

After getting back home Kakashi had given them the week off but told them not to slouch. Naruto had taken it easy only doing the minimum amount for all of his exercises. When his friends in team Gai asked him what was wrong he just told them he didn't want to talk about and that he would be fine in a couple of days. He held true to his words. By Wednesday he was pretty much back to normal.

Bursting into the weapons shop he rubbed his hands together while approaching the counter. "So, Ten-chan, what do you have for me today?" Naruto, Tenten, and her Father, Kento, had all agreed that at a small weekly fee Naruto would get some of the scrap metal that the small family had left over from making weapons. It wasn't a vast amount of metal but it was enough for his needs and, being raised with practically nothing, he was immensely grateful to them. They were also grateful to him, because of his weekly pay they could afford to buy some more exotic, unique, and all around rare weapons; only a few, but still, some was better than none.

Kento also was one of the few who thought of Naruto as a hero. Though he never voiced this opinion, especially around his daughter, he would always allow Naruto entrance into his store. He considered it a safe haven for the young gennin.

This week Tenten lifted a satchel the size of two fists put together onto the counter. Naruto's eyes had stars in them as he slid the bills across the counter. "With this it'll finally be done!" He exclaimed eyes still sparkling with a little drool coming out of the side of his mouth.

"When will I get to see this 'Amazing Invention' of yours Naru-kun? You've been talking about it since we first started this little deal." She eyed him curiously; he sure could keep a secret. If she only knew the half of it.

"Maybe today, maybe next week, who knows?" He said with a smirk. But he had other business in the familiar store today. He had decided that he would need something other than kunai to defend himself with when the enemy got close. Super-human accuracy was great but did absolutely shitty against a close range opponent. While his new invention would even the odds in his favor he didn't want to rely on the experimental device.

Walking around the store he saw several interesting weapons but none that fit his style. A blue shield with a broad sword, for some reason he felt like it would go well with all his green (1). A zanbatou like Zabuza's, big and scary, but hard to wield (unless you're really pissed). A scythe, again, large and fear inducing, but hard to actually use effectively. Then he saw what he wanted, the perfect weapon, or should he say weapons.

Two short swords only about 2 feet long each. 6 inches for the handle and the other one and a half feet was all blade. They were slightly curved like miniature katanas the only distinguishing feature on the blade was(2) on the bladed edge right on top of the hand guard. It was a round area where someone could stick their finger; the inside of the hole was dull so one actually could stick their finger in there with out fear of not being able to count to five anymore.

Picking up his new defense mechanism he went to the counter, a content smile on his face at finding the perfect weapon(s) for him. Tenten looked at his choice then back at him and with a completely straight face she said, "These aren't for sale." The results were quite amusing, His face fell and twin streams of tears fell down his face mourning the loss of his soon to be favorite melee weapons. She couldn't hold it back anymore, she laughed long and hard at his predicament.

He stopped his sobbing and looked her straight in the eye, "these ARE for sale aren't they?" She could only nod while she chuckled, "Sweet Kami you love to fuck with me don't you?" Kento seeing this as an opportunity he couldn't pass up made his presence known.

"Oh, my young daughter and my favorite customer are having familiar relations? Well don't expect a discount just because you knocked my daughter up." Tenten blushed fourteen shades of crimson at that point but before she express her disdain at her father's assumption their customer decided to speak up.

Not being one to be out done Naruto had his retort ready " Don't worry I don't, plus…I always use a rubber, isn't that right Ten-chan?" he nudged her with his elbow. But instead of her playing along she just turned even redder. The two men began to wonder if her head would pop.

"**DAD!! NARUTO!!**" She screamed while she began to hurl the contents of her kunai pouch at them. The current brothers in pain began to laugh like mad as they ran from her. Naruto took his blades with him and handed Kento the money plus a little extra, not that Kento knew yet.

"Heh, I'll be back for training once she calms down old man!" Naruto shouted over his shoulder.

"So I'll see you in a week gaki?" Kento laughed.

"If that's what it takes!" The two men shared a laugh while Tenten was roaring curses and death threats like no tomorrow. The man who worked next door looked out his window to see the strange spectacle only to shrug and say "It must be Wednesday."

After the week off was up Naruto had received basic training from the Teuchis as well as some scrolls on how to wield his blades properly. He was far from mastery, very far, but he was well on his way. He had also finished his 'great invention'.

Always finding time to ask out Sakura he found her near an ally where also found his personal fan club, the Konohamarou Corps. After a minor altercation involving relationship accusations and someone (coughKonohamaroucough) calling Sakura a hag, the young leader of the corps was running for his life. Rounding a corner he ran into someone with make up, a bundle on his back, and a black…pajama suit on.

"Watch it punk, I oughta teach you a lesson." The-fucking-weirdo threatened.

"Don't Kankuro. If HE finds out you're dead." The female behind him stated with a tinge of fear in her voce.

"I'm just gonna teach this brat some manners. I'll be real quick Temrai, HE won't have to know" The newly dubbed Kankuro said.

"Whatever I'm not a part of this." She said throwing her arms up in defeat.

"HEY! Put him down you sissy freak. Or you'll have to deal with me!" Our favorite hero shouted while pointing a finger at the paint-clad boy. Sakura was trying to calm everybody down but to no avail.

"SISSY!? For that this kid gets it!" He shouted but while he was pulling his fist back he looked at his prey to find him looking with awe and joy on his face at something behind Kankuro. He found that he couldn't thrust his balled fist forward. He looked back to find the camo-clad rescuer behind him with his back turned but Kankuro's wrist firmly in his grasp. The kid had a hard look on his face and he was only looking forward not even turning his gaze towards Kankuro.

"I warned you. Now if you don't let him go…you lose this hand and your puppet is useless." Naruto said with a voice that could freeze hell over twice. Kankuro would have paled if his face wasn't covered. Temari simply blushed at the power and cool attitude this new guy had. The Konohamarou Corps plus Sakura could only stare, could this really be the same Naruto?

"H-how did you know about Karasu(sp?)?" Kankuro asked while dropping Konohamarou.

"Simple, the smell of wood, oil, and metal parts. The fact that it was human sized. Plus, Suna is known for its puppet masters, so someone with the previous characteristics as well as a Suna headband could easily fit into that category." He turned to Temari softening his gaze, she had done nothing wrong, "And you must be a wind user. Tell me, does Suna have many good scrolls on wind manipulation? If so I'd like to order some." She could only nod, still stricken by his heroic attitude and deduction skills. "Arigatou."

When he turned to return to his group Kankuro seemed to get his balls back because he prepared to attack the leaf shinobi while his back was turned. "Kankuro. Back off. If you don't I'll kill you myself." Said a cold voice from the tree where Sasuke had been watching. A swirl of sand, and Garaa had made his appearance.

"G-Garaa I was just-"

"Silence. You tell me who are you." Garaa said in cool monotone.

"I, am Uzumaki Naruto." Looking down at his three biggest fans he sighed and continued "Boss of the Konohamarou Corps, and future Hokage." To say the aforementioned corps were giddy would be an understatement, their leader was soooo cool. "And you are?"

"I am Subaku no Garaa." Naruto nodded and pointed towards Kankuro.

"The make up freak?"

Kankuro's eyebrows twitched, "Subaku no Kankuro"

And lastly he nodded towards Temari "And the lovely young lady?" he said with his best sexy/charming smile.

"Subaku no Temari, Naruto-kun." She said with a small blush. Heh, damn he was good. Sasuke despising the fact that he wasn't in the limelight decided to make his presence known.

"I am Uchiha Sasuke." Garaa didn't even look at him, Kankuro scoffed, Temari looked at him taking in his looks she then looked back at Naruto who just shrugged. She liked Naruto-kun better. Needless to say Sasuke was a little more than pissed at the lack of recognition. But he let it slide, these guys were new, they didn't know the order around here yet.

"I look forward to seeing you in the exams." Garaa said, suppressing the urge to kill him then and there. Kankuro flipped Naruto off before following his brother and Temari waved goodbye before she too took her leave. This left Naruto to spend his time with his favorite wanna-be ninjas.

After he had spent some time playing with the corps Naruto had gathered with his team on their bridge, like always. He waited for two hours for his sensei, like always. His sensei handed them their forms to sign up for the Chunnin Exams, like alw-actually that has never happened before. Kakashi told them what to do and where to go and then he was off like a poof of smoke. Naruto was giddy; he'd become a Chunnin and get one step closer to his goal. Sasuke was smug and confident that he would easily pass the tests. Sakura was nervous but she had resolved to become stronger so she would follow her team to the end if need be.

Arriving at the academy they all nodded to each other before entering the building. Looking around they saw many, many teams crowded around one door being blocked by two chunnin. Team 7 spotted the genjutsu but they agreed not to call attention to it so that they could cut down the amount of competition. Naruto looked to where the most commotion was coming from to find Lee on the ground with a few bruises on his face. Tenten was pleading with the chunnin to let them pass but they just told them all to give up. After their warning the one closest to Tenten drew his fist back.

Now, Naruto may not be the perfect gentleman but one of his rules was to never hit a lady unless abso-fucking-lutely necessary. This guy was about to break this rule on one of his friends, that didn't sit to well with Naruto. Stepping forward he intercepted the fist with his hand. Bending it back he started speaking, "I _know _you weren't about to hit a lady without good reason, right? 'Cause if you were, you just made it on my list _buddy _and if you piss me off you'll have to deal with THIS!" after saying that he began to gradually apply pressure to the hand.

The chunnin didn't last long before he caved and gave up, crying uncle for all to hear. "You guys alright? Lee, Ten-chan? Man, guys who slug girls really get my goat(3)." Naruto said while looking his two friends over.

"NARUTO-KUN YOUR YOUTHFUL CHIVALRY KNOWS NO BOUNDS!!! I WILL BE TWICE AS CHIVALROUS TO PROVE THAT MY YOUTH BURNS BRIGHTER!!!" Lee said in his indoor voice. Naruto took that as 'Yes, I'm fine thanks for asking.' He looked to Tenten.

'Wow. I don't think even Neji would have stepped in like that. He would have told me I needed to be stronger. B-but we were just acting not showing our true strength, that's right if I was really going to get hit Neji would have stepped in. Right?' While Tenten was having these thoughts Naruto shook her shoulder a little bit to get her attention. She looked around and found that her team as well as team 7 had moved to the back of the room for some reason. "What was that Naruto-kun?"

He whispered so the others wouldn't get worried "I said, are you okay? You were kind of spacing out. You sure your okay? Because, while I may not like that douche, he was right. It's kill or be killed in this test, I don't want my friends to get hurt" he paused and he seemed to become very somber "or worse." While no one could see him he had been fingering Haku's mask, which he now kept inside his cloak, in a special pocket so that it wouldn't get more damaged.

"D-don't worry about me Naru-kun. I'll be fine, just make sure you don't get hurt. My dad and I would be crushed if you didn't come to the shop anymore." She whispered back slightly taken aback from his worry over her as well as his change in attitude.

"Okay, if you're sure." He then spoke up so that only the other two teams could hear him. "Listen up, we're gonna sneak onto the third floor. That way no one will be any wiser to that genjutsu and we'll have less competition." At everyone's nod they began their covert plan when they had just about reached the door a new gennin team that had just arrived decided to show off.

"Hey take off that genjutsu this is the second floor not the third. Heh, I guess we pass this test." The entirety of team 7 and Gai all had one hand on the wall with their heads hung low, well, except for Naruto. He was bashing his head against the door shouting.

"Why, are, people, so, stupid?" punctuating each syllable with a loud THUD. "IT WASN'T A TEST YOU MORON. IT WAS TO WEED OUT THE FOOLS TOO DUMB TO BECOME CHUNNIN! Sweet Kami, If I see you in the exam I'm gonna kick your ass." While several other people agreed with his sentiment his team and Lee's team made their way up. Lee challenged Sasuke to a fight but Naruto wasn't paying attention. He was still worried whether or not Tenten would be all right in this test. He forced those thoughts from his mind, he had warned her about concentrating and he should take his own advice.

Soon after they met Kabuto and his 'magical cards of ninja mystery'. Sasuke requested Rock Lee and Gaara. Naruto requested Naruto. After dishing out the info on Gaara and Lee, Kabuto drew Naruto's card. "Naruto, Naruto…Ah! Here it is! You…requested yourself?" Naruto simply nodded. Kabuto called the information up but before he could read it aloud Naruto had stolen it away. Kabuto was still trying to figure out what had happened when Naruto began to scan over his information.

'Phew, nothing on my bloodline or Kyuubi.' "Well Kabuto it appears as though everything is in order. Good work." 'Freak'. Naruto said while handing the card back to Kabuto who, soon after, was found vomiting on the ground from a sound attack. That's When Ibiki made his move. Explaining the rules and passing out the test he started the timer.

Naruto had figured out the meaning of the test but using his takagan would have been too obvious so he tried everything in his power but still nothing. Hinata was going to let him cheat but he discreetly told her that he wouldn't risk her getting caught for his sake. When the timer went off and Ibiki told them the secret rule about the tenth question Naruto went into full-blown charismatic leader mode. Making a small speech that could rally entire countries behind him, which, in turn, stopped any and all chunnin hopefuls from leaving.

After surprising them by passing them Ibiki then showed them his gallery of scars, proving just how valuable information can truly be. Then out of fucking nowhere some crazy dame bursts in through the windows with this big banner announcing her as the second proctor: Mitarashi Anko. She complained about the number of remaining gennin but promised to "cut them in half" in the next exam.

Anko took the time to warn them about the Forest of Death and Naruto had paid attention, he really did, but that last test was just sooo boring he couldn't stop himself. He did the WORST possible thing he could do. He yawned, deep and loud, he fucking YAWNED. Anko, of course, wouldn't stand for this. Tossing a kunai she disappeared from view. The knife grazed his cheek but he didn't even bat an eyelash, he'd been through worse. What really got him was when she pulled him into a deadly embrace and licked the blood off.

He smirked as she whispered into his ear "You know the cocky ones are always the ones who leave the yummy blood all over my forest." He chuckled and she bristled.

"You don't say" he said while he tapped the kunai he had under her coat, the tip touching the skin right above her kidney. "Well I think I'm pretty well suited for this test, but if all you wanted to do was taste me" he chuckled a dark chuckle, one he hoped sounded as sexy and dangerous as he was going for "all you had to do was ask, Anko-_chaaan._" All present were a little more than shocked at his flirtatious behavior. Temari was rather pissed that she wasn't getting his attention. Hinata felt envious of Anko's forwardness. And for some reason Tenten found herself bristling when the woman made contact with her, friend. (4)

She smirked, this kid had balls, and she liked that. Maybe she'd check first hand how _ballsy _he really was. Her…interesting…train of thought was interrupted by the presence of a certain grass-nin. "Excuse me miss, you dropped this and the sight of blood got me rather excited." Naruto was a little perturbed by this weirdo's preferences and decided to let his opinion be known.

"Listen man, I've got a few things that turn my crank but you don't see me telling random people about them do you? For sanity's sake keep it to yourself." The ninja who heard this managed a chuckle at the grass-nin's expense. After they had been given their scrolls and were told to find a gate Naruto sought out Anko. "Hey, Anko-san."

"If you want a date you'll have to-" she was interrupted by him waving his hands in a dismissive gesture.

"Nah, not right now anyway. I came here to tell you. That one grass-nin reeks of snake (and little boys). It isn't normal, grass doesn't have snakes, not even small ones, and especially not enough to smell so potently of them." He said while looking to make sure no one was listening.

"I'll check into it. That _is _suspicious. Good work Uzumaki." He just waved her off as he ran back to his team. Once in position they prepared to leap into action as soon as the bell rang. The siren blared and Team 7 blurred into the aptly named forest.

-Time skip to Orochimaru fight (5)-

Naruto had just stopped Sasuke from giving the snake bastard their scroll. He kicked off the branch removing one of his green quivers arrows. Jumping throughout the branches he pulled the bow back and prepared to fire. Getting Orochimaru in his sights he charged the seal releasing the arrow while shouting the jutsu name "**REI YA!!**"(Ghost Arrow) The wind-imbued bolt flew through the air, it's speed aided by the affinity it had. But the speed wasn't the only affect the jutsu had.

While it flew seven green streams separated from the arrow's seal. They began to spin around the arrow, following it on its course towards the sannin. He dodged, of course, but Naruto had planned on this. Using his wind affinity and his chakra, he used hand motions to change the bolt's trajectory. It followed the sannin until Naruto finally lost control and it crashed into a tree. The tree was completely shredded because when the arrow and the streams hit they each released a small cyclone tearing the bark apart.

"Kukukuku very nice technique Naruto-kun. Allow me to show you one in return." The pedo then began his hand signs for the summoning jutsu. When he finished a giant snake was underfoot. The snake used its tail to swat Naruto away; he was helpless as he watched the snake charge his friends. He felt himself begin to lose control again. But he fought this time; he fought tooth and nail for control. He had finally won control over the small amount of demonic chakra, but a small amount of demon chakra is still a lot to a human.

Bolting from his current comfy spot, embedded in the tree bark, he used his Kyuubi influenced speed, while he deactivated his weights, to charge completely unseen to the naked eye in front of the snakes strike. Using his currently god-like strength he stopped the snake by turning his body into a fence. He looked up to find Sasuke still in some kind of trance.

"**Teme! Snap out of it! This guy is a Sannin I need your help!**" He shouted in his demonic voice. Sasuke shook himself from his stupor and jumped into action. Orochimaru was about to affix a seal onto Naruto but Sasuke had other plans. Throwing some kunai he managed to divert the snake man's attention long enough for Naruto to struggle free. The blonde jumped down to the forest floor where a small lake could be found.

Sasuke was too busy dodging snake strikes and attacks from the crazed sannin to notice Naruto's plan. That's when they heard a shout of "**MIZU TAIHOU**"(water cannon). A lightning quick stream of water about 7 feet in diameter, with an arrow traveling directly in the center, hit the snake right under the jaw. The pressure and force of the water quickly eroded the scaly skin and drove through the skull killing the summon.

"Kukuku, a valiant effort Naruto-kun. But I can just summon more!" As Orochi began his seals several cries of "**IKAZUCHI BORUTO!!**" were heard from above. Sasuke remembering the name got out of the immediate vicinity. 20 gigantic lightning strikes fell from the canopy of the forest. Tearing apart and torching any foliage, branches or even entire trees that got anywhere near the point of the arrows. Upon striking a solid surface a large explosion of deadly incapacitating electricity tore threw the landscape from every arrow. 20 Narutos then fell from the origin of the heavenly assault. But, having used so much chakra caused Naruto to lose his concentration as well as his consciousness so the clones dispelled to reveal one Naruto falling to his demise.

With a cry of "NARUTO!" Sakura finally jumped into action and caught the blonde free faller. She landed and looked around, the destruction was extensive; it looked like the next great ninja war had happened. Sasuke came out and greeted her and they began to leave when they heard a distinct laugh. "No…no one could have survived that."

"Kukukuku my, my, my I do believe that would have killed me if I had been anyone else. But alas, I wasn't. So now you get to fight me without his protection." He then proceeded to apply the curse seal to an injured Sasuke, telling him all about the power he would receive. Then he left cackling like a pedophile in a maternity ward all the way.

'I awoke several hours later in a daze.' Naruto narrated to himself while rubbing his head (6). He didn't feel 100 percent but he felt better. Basically instead of negative four percent he was at about two. Looking out side of the hollow tree he was in he could see Sasuke torturing a sound-nin. "Sasuke, STOP! He's had enough." Naruto yelled while he limped out of the cave like tree.

"These guys deserve it, dobe. Heh, they hurt your Sakura-chan. Don't you care!?" He asked in a mocking tone. Sakura activated her worried mode and latched onto the tattooed boy.

"Sasuke-kun! Please stop, look at what's happening to you!" She cried into his back. Naruto slowly approached.

"Come on man, listen to her, your not Sasuke right now." He pleaded with his rival turned nightmare. Sasuke's seal receded back to his neck. He began to pant, shocked at what he had felt. Power, plain and simple but, it was evil, he could feel it. But, did he care?

Oblivious to his friend's thoughts Naruto addressed the sound team. "Give us your scroll and beat it. Just because He's tired doesn't mean I'm not." As he said this he pulled back a normal arrow. "Plus, you're out numbered." Dosu looked around, he was surrounded by most of the rookie 9 plus team Gai. Putting his scroll on the ground Dosu then picked up his teammates and ran.

Naruto promptly collapsed, he shouldn't have moved at all. "Naruto-kun!" Tenten shouted as she rushed to check his vitals. Ino decided to have some fun while she did Sakura's hair.

"Tenten, you seem awfully worried about Naruto when Lee is in pretty bad shape as well. I wonder why?" Ino jabbed while evening out Sakura's pink locks.

"He's my friend and he was worried about me so I thought I should return the favor. And Lee should be fine in a minute." Tenten said while turning Naruto over to inspect his wounds. She had been fighting down a blush at the implications of Ino's statement. As soon as Tenten had finished her thoughts on Lee's condition the boy shot up and looked around.

"Ah! Tenten-chan, where are we my youthful teammate?" Lee asked, confusion plastered all over his overly eye-browed face. Everyone who could face faulted, there was _no way _he really couldn't remember was there? His blank expression seemed to answer THAT particular question.

"Well, Naruto should be fine but I don't think he'll be moving anytime soon. He has massive chakra depletion and burns, not to mention several internal injuries. He will need to see a doctor if he wants them to heal properly. Sasuke or Sakura will have to carry him." But apparently this didn't sit well with the protagonist because he began to stand up.

"No, I'm f-fine. I w-won't be a burden. I can still k-keep up with Sakura-chan and the teme. D-don't worry your pretty little head. Besides, I've gotten licked worse than this and I've never seen a doctor once." He said extremely shakily whilst struggling to stand. It was rather awe inspiring to see the Dead-last of Konoha make his way to his feet and begin his trek into the forest. "Come on guys! We've got our scrolls! Lets get out of this over grown excuse for a bush."

The rest of the teams made their way towards the tower in the center, Tenten sent Naruto a few worried glances before he gave her a thumbs up and a wink to drive home the fact that he was all right. After they had all left and Sakura and Sasuke had managed to catch up they began their arduous journey to the center. After a day of slower than usually travel they made it to the tower. They had summoned Iruka and had learned that they had three days in the tower to rest and get their bearings before the second exam. Naruto had asked Iruka to send a team to search for Anko, She had gone looking for the snake and she couldn't be in any better shape than they were.

Naruto took the time to find his room and sleep. He slept through the entire day on the first day to heal his body, his enhanced heeling factor working as fast as it could. By the middle of the second day he woke up feeling fully charged. While Sasuke and, by proxy, Sakura took the extra days to train, Naruto was confident that he could handle himself well against any of the hopefuls without losing. He was not conceded just confident. Plus even though he felt good he had just recovered from one of the most serious battles of his life and he wanted to let his body adjust slowly, so instead of flat-out training he would do light exercises and read some of his scrolls.

When he wasn't 'training' he was spending time with the rest of the rookies that had arrived. Talking with Neji about chakra control as well as just plain regular stuff, well, regular stuff for a ninja. He spent some time practicing with Tenten in his swords and making sure they were both ready for whatever was coming up next. He would laugh and joke with Kiba and Lee, he even got Sasuke to make a few wise cracks about their sensei. Talking with Shino one day he asked him where the bug user got the 'cool shades' and Shino told him he'd give him a spare pair he had after the exams. He easily made friends with the lazy Shikamaru and by proxy the gluttonous Chouji.

When the three days were up and the first match had been called in the small tournament Naruto found himself occupied by thoughts of his new invention. Would it work right? Should he use it? Would he be able to use it? He was snapped out of his stupor as Tenten's match against Temari was announced. He and Lee gave her words(shouts) of encouragement, but Naruto feared for her safety in this fight though. Tenten was a melee fighter Temari was a mid to long range fighter.

His fears seemed to foretell the outcome because Tenten was defeated, but before she could fall off the giant fan and be in more than a little pain the ref called Temari as the winner and Naruto jumped the railing and caught the weapon's mistress while shouting her name. Sakura looked at where Naruto had been grasping the railing during the bun-haired girls fight and, to her immense shock, she found the strong metal to be completely crushed, like it was nothing more than a tin can. Naruto carried his friend up to the medical team and laid her gently on the stretcher before whispering a threat to the team, telling them that if she wasn't in perfect health by the time he was finished that they would be in much worse condition. They could only prey that they had enough time to work because his eyes and his voice promised legendary pain.

Temari could only watch on in confusion. In the sand the strongest were the most desirable. He should be praising her not pitying that weakling. Perhaps she was wrong, this wasn't the sand after all. She'd have to look into Naruto's likes and dislikes. Maybe she could get a date out of him before Gaara killed him. That is, if he won his match.

Stalking his way back up to the stands he sat against the wall and allowed his hat to cover his face from view, he had been mad and was afraid of someone seeing his altered appearance if he had changed at all. He was roused from his brooding when Sakura shook him telling him that his fight was next. He was fighting Dosu Kinata. Good, this guy was the dick who hurt his friends and Naruto need to vent.

When he had finally met his opponent in the arena even though you couldn't see his face the bandaged teen was still looking pretty smug. "Too bad your cute girlfriend isn't her to see how a real man fights, midget. Maybe she'd still be willing to see how a real man _moves _after I mop the floor with you." Oh hell no, he didn't just…but he did! First he insulted his friend, then the guy calls him short? Naruto thought it was a perfect time to test out his new invention.

"Hey ref, I may kill this guy soo, don't say I didn't warn you." He turned an icy eye to the mummy. "I notice you have a metal arm, I happen to have one as well. But, you my _friend _will be the first live target for me to test it on." Naruto said while biting the tip of his tongue and smearing the blood on the metal plate over his right glove. Some of his friends in the audience were still a little stunned to hear him talk about killing like it was the weather.

"Don't bullshit me! You don't have anything big enough on you to hold your weapon in! What do you take me for?" Was Dosu's heated reply.

Naruto lifted his hand, palm towards his face and fingers extended, up to about eye level showing his opponent a seal etched into the steel with a line of blood spread over its face. "Well I have sealed it into this glove." He pulled each finger down one at a time popping the knuckles before he began to pump chakra into his seal. He used his lightning affinity to summon a bit of electricity between his fingers, for effect, and soon there was a poof of smoke, revealing a large, round cylinder that covered the entirety of his forearm. At the end facing the sky there was another much small cylinder, wider than it was long, with a hole at the top in the center of the first (6). The weight of the device finally got to him and he let his arm hang loosely at his side a smug smirk on his face.

"You know, I wasn't going to use this but you piss me off so, I'm gonna shut you up one way," he hefted his arm onto his shoulder, "or the other."

"How do you expect to use that on me when you can barely lift it!?" Dosu laughed.

"Hm, you right." He looked up to Gai, "Hey sensei I gotta turn 'em off is that okay?"

"OF COURSE NARUTO-KUN! YOUR YOUTHFUL FIRE WILL BURN MORE BRIGHTLY WITHOUT THEM ON FOR THIS FIGHT!" Gai shouted. Naruto nodded with a smile at his wacky sensei while Kakashi could only stare, unbelieving, at the fact that _his _student called Gai sensei. With a small burst of chakra the weights dispelled, giving Naruto his full movement back. The effects were obvious, as he stood straighter and, just to shut up the laughing Dosu, started to effortlessly swing his burdened arm like it was his normal appendage.

Most people's eyes widened at the sight. The referee began the match then Dosu sprung into action but Naruto was easily dodging his attacks and, because of his slightly better hearing, could avoid the sound waves of the Melody arm. "You see Dosu," Naruto began, "When we use jutsu we burn a lot of unnecessary chakra, especially when your control is as bad as mine." He dodged another punch. "But even if you have perfect control you will always lose this small amount of chakra that our bodies release as a natural safeguard when a jutsu is activated." Naruto jumped over the mummy's head. "I hated the idea of being so wasteful so I developed my Chakra Catcher Arm." He tripped the masked boy and jumped a safe distance away.

"I won't go into the details but I will tell you that this allows me to utilize all the chakra that my body would discharge when using our ninja techniques." Naruto circled the panting teen. "The only problem is, remember that safeguard chakra I mentioned before?" Naruto stood still and watched his prey. "Well when that chakra is used in conjunction with normal chakra there is no way for any kind of jutsu to be performed and using it harms the user through the heat of the process as well as immense pressure from release."

"Well then what the fuck is it good for, you coward!?" a slightly winded Dosu screamed.

"You see, my friend, while jutsu are useless and it hurts me; it allows me to wield pure chakra. Although devoid of any elemental influence it is still extremely deadly. Allow me to demonstrate." At this point Dosu was standing in a loose defensive stance and Naruto charged his weapon with a low amount of chakra. The machine glowed a bright blue before Naruto disappeared from view.

When he made his appearance his new arm was deep in Dosu's gut forcing the wind out of the sound shinobi but the worst was yet to come. Naruto leaned in and whispered in the boy's ear, "**Chakra Myaku**" (Chakra pulse). A ring of blue exploded from the whole in the cylinder concealed by Dosu's stomach. Said boy flew with tremendous speed upward toward the ceiling because of the angle of Naruto's arm. Naruto growled back the pain.

The blonde then used his left arm to steady his new weapon as he aimed it at the teen now currently lodged in the ceiling. "**Chakra Keta**"(Chakra Beam) Naruto said in a cool, relaxed, voice as a large beam of pure chakra exploded forth plowing into the wrapped sound-nin. The beam burned both Dosu and the ceiling and the power behind the blast soon broke through the roof. The boy, while badly injured and burned yet still alive, began his decent back down to earth.

"**CHAKRA TSURUGI!**" (Chakra sword) A thin beam of chakra was expelled through the opening in Naruto's arm. It was round, only as big as the opening from which it was spawned, and it only extend about two feet until it came to a point but it was deadly as all hell. Pumping some chakra into his legs Naruto pushed of the ground and rocketed toward the falling boy. He seamed to pass right through Dosu before he deactivated the blade and fell gracefully to the ground. Dosu was less fortunate and slammed unceremoniously to the rock floor of the arena.

While the jounins present could track his slashes with a little effort they knew what he had done to the poor teen. The gennins though only caught glimpses of his blindingly rapid attacks so they assumed the worst. They were put off quite a bit that their friend could kill so easily like that. But to their astonishment the only thing that signified Naruto cutting the boy was the melody arm shattering to hundreds of perfectly cut pieces. The medics declared Dosu as unconscious and that he would live. Hayate, the ref, raised an eyebrow at Naruto's actions. The blonde saw this and decided to answer the unasked question.

"He was already knocked out, I had won. No reason to kill him, I just wanted to test my weapon." Hayate nodded and Naruto's friends and sensei's were happy with his control and maturity, if not a little surprised. Naruto then stored his weapon again but when he did many people in the audience wished he hadn't. His entire arm was a burned, mangled mess. It could hardly be called an arm anymore. His male friends were impressed with his ability to deal with the pain that obviously caused the injury. The females were…well, pretty disgusted…but impressed nonetheless. When the medic team walked up to the panting pre-teen he just smiled and shook his head, refusing their medical attention.

Temari was head over heels at this point. He finished his match with little to no effort, it seemed. He created that incredible weapon and his ability to shrug off pain like that was awe-inspiring. She HAD to talk to him later. The only problem was his weapon-wielding girlfriend.

He ripped the sleeve off his left arm and used it to wrap his injured arm and then he used his cloak to make a makeshift sling for his arm. He made it back to his team, everyone's attention currently on the match between Lee and Garaa, and Hinata came up to him and offered him a container of healing salve as well as a soldier pill for the obvious chakra depletion he had. He thanked her with a smile and she could have died happy right then and there. He began to apply the salve after taking the pill when he saw his friend taking beating. He cried out for Lee to stick in there and beat the sand freak but to no avail.

Then Garaa tried to kill the defenseless Gai-clone. He was stopped by not only Gai, But Naruto, who had jumped down and lifted his friend with his good arm to safety, as well. When asked why they had stopped him they both answered that he was someone that they truly care about and would die to protect him. Naruto handed Lee over to Gai and the medical team while sending a death glare to the red haired sand user.

The next match was Neji and Hinata. Naruto cheered on Hinata believing that she could win and that she deserved to for being nice to him all the time, even if she is weird. But everything went straight to hell. While Hinata fought valiantly she couldn't beat her prodigy of a cousin. When she finally fell to exhaustion and injuries Neji made one last assault fully intending to cap the match with a kill. He was stopped by Kurenai, Kakashi, and(guess who, that's right our chivalrous hero) Naruto.

"Neji," Naruto growled out while swiping some of Hinata's blood off the floor, "you may be one of my closest friends, but trying to kill someone like that is… is…UNFORGIVABLE! Family is meant to stick together, no matter what! I don't care what fate has in store for me cause I'm taking you down. You'll learn that this hate is destroying you, even if I've gotta bash your skull in. " Naruto shouted extending his bloodied fist towards his new enemy. The fights were drawn and it was as follows:

Sasuke Vs. Garaa

Naruto Vs. Neji

Temari Vs. Shikamaru

Shino Vs. Kankuro

Kiba and Chouji's fight as well as Sakura and Ino's fight both ended in draws. With their battle drawn the teams dispersed to begin their training for the month. Naruto sprinted to the hospital to visit his injured friends, particularly worried about a certain brown-eyed girl. When he arrived he was relieved to find her asleep. When he asked of her condition he found that she would be fine but was asked to stay over night to ensure she got the proper bed rest. Naruto took the opportunity to check on his other friends.

They were all in similar condition save for Lee. He may never be able to be a ninja. Naruto left Lee a box containing four brand new wrist and leg bands with a note telling his friend he'd better get well soon; that as soon as he could walk again Naruto would show him how to use the new weights. When Naruto had been traversing the hospital he found a gift shop containing several different bouquets of flowers. His inner ladies man told him to buy the biggest arrangement for his favorite weapons mistress.

It's not that he liked her like that, it's just…he wanted to make sure she knew he was glad she was okay. That's it, that's exactly it, nothing more. So upon making his purchase, and shedding a single (ahem, multiple, possibly biblical in proportion) tear(s) for his wallet, he stealthily snuck it into her room leaving behind a card as the only evidence as to who left the giant arrangement of roses, buttercups and other assorted flowers.

_Dear Ten-chan,_

_I'm glad that you are okay; I was really worried there for a while. Listen, get well soon so that you can see my matches. If I fight that girl in the exams I don't care if she is a woman, she'll get hers for hurting you. We'll beat her together._

_Love,_

_Naruto_

P.S. I had to unveil my invention a little early sooooo I'll show you if you want to see it after you get released.

Naruto didn't really pay any mind to writing, "love Naruto" at the end of his letter. He assumed if you were really good friends with someone that's what you were supposed to do. It's not that he didn't love Tenten, just not in a romantic sense. Little did he know what he had just done.

A/N: Aaaaaaaand done. Phew I finally finished it. I would have been done sooner had I not fallen asleep or had to attend my families Christmas Party. Man, I make it sound so formal. I'm nowhere near rich, it was just our neighbors coming over and exchanging gifts. Well I hope you enjoy your present cause when I submit this it will officially be Christmas. For those of you who don't celebrate my holiday please enjoy your own. Thanks for sticking with me, please R&R and have a nice vacation.

A/N: 1/16/07 updated! Biggest update yet because I added new shit to the story to spice up later chapters.

1: Zelda joke.

2: a golden fox with nine tails for the hand guard, heh, a joke about most other fics. If you don't get it I don't care.

3: sin-city reference

4: You thought I was gonna say _her_ Naruto-kun, didn't you?

5: sorry there's a lot of shit I don't wanna write in here.

6: family guy joke

7: think mega man's Mega buster only dull, gunmetal, gray instead of blue.


	6. C6 A whole month, only two days though

Okay, yes, I have not updated in awhile. Why? Didn't feel like it, but I AM NOT dropping the story. This chapter may SEEM like filler but it is really just build up and character development. Kay, enjoy chapter 6. Oh yeah, I'm updating all my previous chapters as well.

I don't own Naruto. Disclaimed!

During the time Naruto spent with team Gai he had learned to pick up on the team's minor quirks. Neji LOVES chocolate and would do almost anything for a box of it. Lee, well, Lee had more than his fair share eccentricities but if Naruto had to pick one it would be that Lee cannot begin his exercises unless he's counted to thirty while doing cartwheels. Gai always brushes his teeth four times after every meal and Tenten always, no matter what, sleeps on her right side. Having this in mind and being the trickster he is he wanted his flowers to be a surprise to the very last second. So he placed them on her left side while she was in the hospital.

Tenten woke up completely recharged, though; her back did hurt a little. She remembered what had happened and she winced, the medical team must have done a REALLY good job to dull the pain this much. She finally opened her eyes and what did she see? A table. But upon that table were three vases filled with different flowers. One vase, the larger, kunai shaped one, had tiger lilies in it. The card said it was from her father, she smiled he really did love her a lot. The second smaller vase, which was shaped like Gai's head when he does his 'nice-guy pose', had some daisies in it the card said it was from Lee (it also said that even though she was unconscious her flames of youth would always burn brightly, this part was skipped), like she had any doubt it her mind who would send that. The third was from Gai, filled with the same flowers as Lee's but shaped like, guess who, Lee. MASSIVE SWEATDROP!!!!!1!!!one! The flowers never needed to be watered again.

She was happy that they had remembered her but why hadn't Neji or, better yet, why hadn't Naruto? She may have been hoping Neji would send her something but she would have expected Naruto to have been the first. He was just like that, plus he was all concerned during the exam. That must mean he was hurt during his fight! What if he had been killed, she'd never see him again! She was on the verge of hysterics but she forced herself to calm down, no sense in getting worked up over something she had no proof of. Besides there were other reasons why he would send anything, he DID live alone maybe he couldn't spare the money or he'd go hungry. She felt guilty at that thought.

She turned her head to the left to get a better look at her surroundings as well as to take her mind off the flowers when she saw it. A big, beautiful arrangement of flowers, lilies, buttercups, roses you name it! Her heart skipped a beat as she opened the card. She began to read.

_Dear Ten-chan,_

Ten-chan? So whoever sent this was close to her.

_I'm glad that you are okay; I was really worried there for a while._

So they were worried, she felt bad for making them worry about her. But they shouldn't have been worried her injuries weren't anywhere near fatal, so it was a sweet thought.

_Listen, get well soon so that you can see my matches._

Whoever this is they are still in the matches, good for them. Though, she was a little jealous.

_If I fight that girl in the exams I don't care if she is a woman, she'll get hers for hurting you. _

They are a male, could it be Neji!?

_We'll beat her together._

'Please let it be Neji-kun!' she screamed in her head.

_Love,_

Love!? Her face, which had been getting significantly brighter throughout the short note, reached an apex of crimson hue. 'Neji, Neji, Neji…' she began to chant in her head as she continued reading hoping to find the sender.

_Naruto_

**NARUTO!?** Her face lit up even brighter. He sent the flowers?! It must have cost a fortune! Now he really _would_ go hungry! And he wrote the note, singing it with "love"?! What was she gonna do!

Sure he's nice, and funny, and strong…and kind of cute…and cool when he wants to be, but its NARUTO! He's, well, he's…a year younger than her, and…and, and not Neji! It couldn't work. He was one of her best friends, maybe even her best friend. She didn't want to hurt his feelings! He IS pretty naïve though, maybe he didn't mean it like that, and he did have that big crush on Sakura after all. Not that she's good enough for him anyway.

While Tenten was having this massive catch-22 Naruto was walking down the hall in the hospital with a box of fresh sushi, Tenten's favorite food. After leaving his clones at home, like always, he made his way as quickly as possible to the hospital to see his downed friends. While walking he spied the referee from the third exam prelims, Gekko Hayate. He'd heard that Hayate was a really good kenjutsu specialist; maybe he could help Naruto with his blades. Having a sensei in the area might make him a force to be reckoned with, with a blade.

Hayate, meanwhile, had been having a weird vibe about that Baki guy so he was going to check him out. He'd followed him to the hospital hoping to uncover something but nothing had turned up yet. He was right about to follow Baki into a hallway when Naruto stopped him. Not wanting to reveal his suspicions to the loud boy he was forced to turn and speak with the boy.

"Hey Gekko-san!" Naruto shouted civilly.

"Hello Uzumaki-kun." He coughed loudly "How can I help you?" The sickly looking jounin(1)

"Well you see Gekko-san, I've started using swords and I've heard that you were amazing with them. I'm still not very good but I was wondering…if you don't have anyone as a student right now if you could, maybe, possibly, teach me? I promise to be the hardest working student you've ever had!" During his request Naruto had closed his eyes, bowed his head and raised both his hands over his head in a pleading gesture.

Hayate was shocked! No one had ever asked him to train them, and while he didn't want to boast he _was _rather impressive with a sword. He looked back only to find that he had completely lost Baki. Sighing he returned to pondering Naruto's request. He did an impressive job during the exams and Gai has been heard to say that Naruto's "flames of youth" rival Rock Lee's. A term Hayate took to mean he trained as hard as Lee, which was quite impressive. Even Kakashi has said he was a fast learner. Maybe taking Naruto as a student would be good for both of them, he was going to have to have a gennin team anyway; why not get some good practice.

"Call me Hayate-sensei Naruto. (Cough) I'll send the details of your training over to your house (cough) later in the week. (Cough) I look forward to training you." Hayate said while smiling at the blonde's ecstatic expression.

"You'll do it?! Arigato, arigato! I can't wait sensei! But, I gotta go see someone, bye! Thanks again!" Naruto said while running back towards his original destination.

Naruto slowed his steps and tried to be as quiet as possible in case Tenten was still asleep. He slowly opened the door and inched his head inside the room, covering his eyes just in case. "Ten-chan? Are you awake? Or even in here…or decent?" he whispered loud enough for it to be heard in the room, but quiet enough that it wouldn't wake someone up. Tenten, who had decided to break it to him gently and was currently enjoying the scent of the flowers he had given her, nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of his voice.

"Ahh! Oh, Naruto-kun I didn't here you come in. Come on, come in it's okay." She answered while trying to slow down her heart. Jeeze, being a ninja sure does make you jumpy.

"Hey Ten-chan! You hungry? I brought you some breakfast…lunch…whatever." He said while holding out his Styrofoam take out box. She smiled and thanked him while relieving him of his tasty burden. When she opened it to find her favorite food her face felt kind of warm. First the flowers now this, his gifts were making her blush. She hoped he couldn't tell. Luckily he was staring at the horrendous Gai and Lee face vase duo.

"Let me guess, Lee sent Gai and Gai sent Lee?" She nodded and he shuddered while chuckling. "So how are you feeling? Does your back hurt? Do you want another pillow? Did you like the flowers? I hope I got the right kinds. You're not allergic are you? Is the sushi fresh? You like that kind right? I told him that you liked yoshida sauce(2), do you have enough? I can go get more." He was firing questions faster than Tenten could throw kunai. And she had a fucking _arm_ on her.

"Naruto-kun, calm down! I'm fine, everything's perfect. Thank you." She said while giggling at his worried expression and the way his voice sounded so concerned over something like her not having enough sauce for her sushi. He must really want to make her comfortable.

"Thank goodness." He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. An impressive feat considering how much air he was dispelling while asking all those questions.

"So, tell me how the exams went." She asked while she began eating, nothing like a good story with a good meal and Naruto told some of the best stories. Naruto then began to regale her with stories about his fight making loud explosion noises and throwing his arms around. He then took a solemn turn when he told her about Lee. She gasped and almost cried but Naruto was able to calm her down with promises of avenging their friend as well as helping him recover. When he all he told her about Neji's fight was that "he won" she suspected something.

"How did Neji-kun win Naruto-kun?" She asked while lifting another piece of fresh fish to her mouth.

Naruto winced, he knew that she really liked Neji… it was really obvious, so he didn't know how she'd like this news. Looking away he answered her. "He tried to kill Hinata." Tenten gasped and dropped her sushi. "He was stopped by Kakashi-sensei, Kurenai-sensei and myself." She was staring wide-eyed at the blonde trickster. Neji was cold and he didn't like the main house, that much was clear, but to try and kill his own cousin, especially Hinata! She was one of the nicest people Tenten had ever met!

"I'm fighting him in the first round of the finals. I intend to win, and show him the error of his ways. Living with hate will only destroy him, and I don't want to lose my friends. Even if that means I have to kick their asses." Tenten didn't know what to say. She was torn, on one-side her best friend and all around nice guy. While on the other side was her first and only crush who, while cold and sometimes cruel, could still be kind and still had an iron grip on her affections. Seeing her expression Naruto had decided against talking anymore. After a few minutes of silence he broke it.

"When do you think you'll be able to leave? Maybe you and I could-" He was cut off by Tenten.

"Naruto-kun, I-I read your note and…I-" This time she was cut off.

"Say no more, I understand completely Ten-chan." He said while raising a hand to quiet her.

"You do?" she asked feeling slightly relieved and slightly on edge. Perhaps he 'understood' that she liked him like that, because she doesn't.

"Sure! You want to see my new invention don't you? Well as soon as you get better I'll show you. Now," He put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back into the pillows on her bed, "get some rest, I don't want you to overexert yourself. And I don't even know what that means." He could have been joking or telling the truth, because no matter how hard he trained he never seemed to feel the effects of his toil the next day.

"It wasn't that bad." Tenten said while crossing her arms over her chest and sporting a cute pout on her face. Trying to suppress the small smile at his simple joke.

"I know, but just humor me." Naruto then stood up and after picking up the remnants of her meal headed towards the door. "Bye, Ten-chan! Take it easy and get better fast! When you get out you know where to find me." He said with his back turned and one hand waving.

"Ichiraku's?" She said with a smirk.

"I'm not there ALL the time. But, yeah that's probably your best bet, if you think about it." He said while leaving a chuckling Tenten behind. After he closed the door Tenten thought about their interaction. He didn't seem to really make any indications that he thought their relationship was different, he must really be that naïve. He probably wrote the same thing in Lee's card. She laughed at her assumption of Naruto _loving_ her like _that _and fell asleep facing the scariest pair of vases ever created.

Naruto had just thwarted an attempt on Lee's life by his former opponent Gaara, with Gai-sensei's help of course. He was walking (sprinting) towards the training grounds with said Green Beast when he remembered something. "Hey-Gai sensei I'll meet you there I have to go get something."

"Yosh! Of course Naruto-kun, I will begin the warm-ups while I wait for your return. I expect to see you arrive on your hands my young pupil!" Naruto noted that his sensei's voice was a decibel lower than usual. Lee's injury and subsequent assassination attempt must have taken a toll on him.

"Don't worry sensei um, we can make Lee's, uh, flames of youth twice as bright as they were before if we do everything we can to help him." Naruto said while raising his fist to emphasize his point.

Moved to tears, Gai could only nod before he finally found his voice "YOSH!! NARUTO-KUN, YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!" He then enveloped Naruto in a big hug. A familiar background of a sunset and crashing waves behind him.

"NARUTO!"

"Uh, Gai-sensei?" Naruto said nervously whilst patting the large man on the back.

"NARUTO!"

"Gai-sensei?" perhaps speaking of the flames of youth around his teacher wasn't the smartest move in the world. After a few moments more Naruto managed to **kawamiri** with a clone. The clone shot him a desperate stare but Naruto fixed him with a glare conveying the message 'He needs someone to do this and if you wriggle out of this bad things happen'. The clone sighed in defeat and proceeded to humor his big teacher.

Naruto ran back to his house, retrieved his gift for Gai and ran, on his hands, back to the training grounds to find Gai and a thoroughly shaken and perturbed clone waiting for him in the same position he had left them in. Deciding that because if he dispelled the clone he would be equally disturbed he simply ended its short life with a kunai to the skull, seeing as how a killed clone didn't return info only a little chakra. He could have sworn he heard the clone mutter a tearful "thank you" before it turned to smoke.

"Okay Gai-sensei I think I have something that will really cheer you up!" After saying this he was surprised to see Gai sitting cross-legged in front of him with stars in his eyes. Like a freaking four year old at Christmas.

"Whatever could it be Naruto-kun!? Please it is unyouthful to keep me in suspense any longer!" Gai said while holding his hands out in a cup-like fashion. Naruto who had and incredulous look on at his teacher's behavior simply dropped four bands into the eagerly waiting hands.

Gai lifted one of the bands up to his face and inspected it thoroughly before looking up to Naruto with a confused face. Instead of explaining Naruto only sighed while lifting up his arm and rolling back his sleeve to reveal and band with the number 450 on it. Gai's face lit up in understanding the stars that were in his eyes previously made an incredible encore. "YOSH! TAHNK YOU NARUTO-KUN! PLEASE SHOW ME THE PROPER USE OF THESE NEW DEVICES!" After showing the exuberant jounin proper chakra weight procedure they continued their normal exercises for the day, sans Lee of course.

Naruto told Gai that he may not have as much time to work with him as usual because of his kenjutsu training so Gai 'cleverly' suggested that they would have to work even harder when they could to compensate. So they started doing that right then and there. Doubling a training regimen that is implemented by the foremost taijutsu master in your village is one of the bravest/stupidest/smartest mistakes you could ever make. You had to have balls of steel to even think of it, be stupid enough to actually do it, and you were a genius for having done it. Because while it _did_ tire you out and hurt like 99 bitches and one mother fucker in a bitch parade on national PMS and stiletto heel stomping day, it made you so strong so fast it was _almost _worth it. Just like it was almost worth it to cut off both your legs so that you could be the fastest man in the world. Keyword: almost.

Needless to say Naruto was drop dead tired and passing by the public hot spring was just _too_ tempting. After relaxing in the _conveniently_ abandoned male hot spring (word of the demon child tainting the male side of the spring traveled faster than heroine through an addicts veins.) Naruto decided to take his leave. He was considerably more relaxed and his muscle only burned a little(like a wild fire right under his skin). That's when he saw a soon-to-be familiar tuft of white fuzz, and he heard the already recognizable sound of perverted giggling. This desensitization courtesy of Kakashi-sensei and Itcha Itcha.

Deciding he didn't like perverts even more Naruto did what he thought was the right thing to do. "Hey, ero-ojiji, come on gramps, lets get you back to the Retirement home. It must be way past your bed time." He just went about it the wrong way.

"Quiet brat! I'm researching! Now screw off as I've no time for your disrespect." The old perv said while waving our young hero off.

"No seriously old man. Quit it or I'm _dragging_ you out of here." Naruto threatened while making his advance on the crotchety old sage. This old prick wasn't even looking at him.

Sighing the white haired man did a few hand seals and when the smoke cleared he was in the same crouched position only he was seated on a giant…toad? The toad's tongue lashed out at Naruto and being bull(frog)-headed himself Naruto stood his ground firmly planting his feet and preparing for the attack. The tongue lashed straight towards his center so Naruto adjusted his weight to the left just enough for the reptilian-exclusive-limb to pass him. That was when he struck. Wrapping the stretchy, sticky muscle in his arms right underneath his armpit he had a firm grip on the offending appendage.

"Hmm, not bad shrimp, perhaps I've underestimated you?" the old man said while rubbing his chin.

"Ya think you old coot!?" Naruto whisper-screamed. Even though his intentions were pure if he was caught over here the females'd fry him just as bad as they'd the toad-freak.

"Perhaps, but what will you do now? You seem to be at unable to move while I can still attack." The toad sage said while sporting a cocky grin.

'Shit! Maybe if I…well it's worth a shot.' "Don't count me out yet you bastard! Hraaaaaah." Naruto growled while trying to summon his elemental affinity for lightning to the surface. With an extreme effort he was able to manifest an electrical current over the topography of his skin send a shocking jolt to the oversized toad. While it was crude and didn't have enough power behind it to do any kind of permanent damage the toad's muscles all froze up and it was frozen to the spot in its paralyzed state. 'Store that under interesting and highly usable.'

"That! …Was very interesting kid. Allow me to introduce myself." Currently-anonymous-old-person began to dance about on the frozen toad, whose tongue was still stuck in the extended position even though Naruto had released it and was now closer to the display. "I! Am the great Toad Sage of the Mountains! Author of the infamous Itcha Itcha series! Jiraiya of the Sannin!" Naruto took the time to remember the name but now he was furiously trying to get the Sannin's attention.

"What is it boy?" Jiraiya asked still in his ending pose.

"You senile old fool! Did you forget where we are!?" Jiraiya paled considerably, "DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE!?" Naruto screamed grasping his head and running around in circles.

"SHIT! You're right! Ahh, what do we do gaki!?" Jiraiya screamed while dispelling his toad. That's when they heard the scariest sound in the world.

"Hey! I here people out there!" "Is that a peep-hole?" "Aaaaah!" "Let's get those perverts!" "Yeah, get 'em" "Kill 'em" Unfortunately Jiraiya had been watching a bath house full of Kunoichi. There were many, many, angry jounin…Anko happened to be one of them.

"RUN! RUN FOR OUR LIVES! FOLLOW ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!" Naruto shouted with his hands thrown up in the air and running towards his house. Jiraiya followed suit quickly after.

"OhshitOhshitOhshitOhshitOhshitOhshitOhshitOhshitOhshitOhshit!" Naruto and Jiraiya chanted while sprinting full tilt towards sanctuary. While they were running Jiraiya tripped over a stray root. "Ero-Sennin!" Naruto yelped while turning around to help the stranger.

"Leave me child! Save yourself! You have so much to live for…DON'T CALL ME THAT!" The toad sage pleaded from the dirt.

"No man left behind gramps! If I did that I'd be lower than scum. We both get out or we both die the greatest death ever…as legends among men." Naruto said solemnly as he began hefting the older shinobi, the sounds of impending doom which, oddly enough, sounds exactly like a horde of pissed off women, becoming clearer every moment. The line about being lower than scum seemed to touch something in Jiraiya and the old man finally looked the boy straight in the face. His eyes widened 'He looks just like him!'

"You're right boy! Hurry, we can still make it!" They began running once again, this time spurred on by the strength of camaraderie…and the occasional stray kunai of course. When they finally made it into Naruto's home Jiraiya barricaded the doors with large toads and the two men hid, like the big strong men they were, under a blanket in the corner of Naruto's basement.

After an hour of complete and total silence Naruto sent a **henged** (so that he wouldn't be recognized) clone to investigate. It came back downstairs and gave them the all clear. They breathed a relieved breath. They, had survived the apocalypse. When they had been running Naruto sent two clones **henged** to look like Sasuke and Neji. His fingers formed a steeple in front of his face and he laughed maniacally in his mind while only allowing a sinister snigger to actually escape his lips.

"Well kid, that was close. So what's your name squirt? I figure I should know the moniker of my brother in arms heh heh." Jiraiya asked dusting himself off.

"Well Jiraiya-oji my name is Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto said while he was standing himself up. Jiraiya froze.

"What was that?" He asked back turned on the camo-ed gennin.

"Uzumaki Naruto. You losing your hearing as well as your mind old man?" That's what he thought the kid said. 'There's no way they're related. No way in hell.' Thought the toad sage.

"Oh yeah! I think I remember now!" Naruto said lifting a finger towards the sky when he made his revelation. "You're the super pervert who trained the fourth!"

"How did you know that?" Jiraiya was a little on edge now. Not many people knew that, how did a kid know it?

"I know…because he was my dad." Jiraiya slowly turned to face the child. "Ojiji-san said I'm practically the spitting image of him!" Naruto took off his hat and cloak, revealing to the world his blonde spikes, dark whisker marks, and deep blue eyes.

"Y-y-y-y-y-your, your, YOUR FATHER!!!" Jiraiya rushed up to the boy. "There's no way. He had only one son and that child was killed with his mother in the Kyuubi attack! Don't you try and defile that name!" Jiraiya said, anger evident in his voice at the thought of someone making such an outrageous claim.

"Shut up! I don't know what bull you've been fed but his son didn't die! He had to seal the Kyuubi right! I know you know this, you're a seal master." Jiraiya warily nodded his head. Naruto lifted his shirt and began to mold some chakra. "Well, you probably know that he had to seal it in a baby." A seal slowly began to appear on his stomach. "The fourth loved Konoha as much as I do, so he couldn't ever use someone else's child for such a sealing." The seal became A little more prominent, Jiraiya took a step back, eyes wide as saucers. "He sealed it into his only son. He sealed it into…me."

"No." Jiraiya fell back and landed on his ass. "I've thought they were all dead for all these years. I thought _you _were dead." He held his head in his hands for a few moments. "Heh, that little bastard always did love to keep secrets and keep everybody guessing."

"Yo, ero-sennin." Naruto said putting his cloak and hat back on.

"What, gaki?" Jiraiya asked, watching his student's heir.

"I want you to train me. To train me like you trained my father. It's my dream to be Hokage, to protect my important people, my precious people. If he got to be strong with your help…I want to too. I need to work hard and become stronger than my father. To bring the Uzumaki name to glory. Please teach me. You may also be the only person to help me control Kyuubi…I never want to lose control." During his small speech of a request Naruto had gotten on his knees and bowed low and long to show he meant business. He never bowed, not that Jiraiya knew that.

'He's just like his dad! I bet doing that is killing him on the inside. He does seem quite strong; he even managed to keep up with me. He thought quickly and created those distraction bunshin. If he's anything like his father was when he trained then his growth will be extraordinary. I'll do it, if not for his own sake…than for his family's' Jiraiya thought while watching his new student. 'But, that doesn't mean I can't still fuck with him!' he thought sinisterly.

"I don't know brat. I only train the best of the best. Le crème of le crop. I don't think you fit that description." He smirked at the panic stricken look on Naruto's face. Kunai: 40 dollars.

Porno: 50 dollars.

Really screwing with a kid's head: priceless.

"W-wait! I know I'll show you my own personal jutsu! I made it myself! It has the power to topple Kages!" Naruto screamed out in alarm. 'This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I need to convince him to teach me!' Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at the claim. He was powerful but not even he had techniques that could take down a skilled kage in one blow. This kid had to be bluffing, but he'd oblige him nonetheless.

Placing his hands in a familiar seal Naruto called out the name of his end-all beat-all jutsu. "**Oiroke no Jutsu!**" he was immediately enveloped in smoke. 'Sexy Technique? What the fuuuuuuuuhhhhgahghagaghghgalll' Jiraiya's thoughts were soon turned to mush at the sight of the beautiful, and not to mention _naked_, female in front of him. "Do you like it Jiraiya-sama?" The new Naruto asked in an innocent chirp. The dumbfounded, nose bleeding, sannin could only nod with a big, perverted grin slathered across his face. Naruto inwardly smirked 'Too fuckin' easy'. "So will you teach me Jiraiya, _sensei_?" The female Naruto seductively purred, practically orgasm-ing when she said sensei.

Jiraiya fell backwards, almost unconscious, and soon after Naruto changed back, a covert smirk splitting his face. 'That technique really can topple kages' were Jiraiya's thoughts. "Okay gaki. You will be my new apprentice! I look forward to whipping you into shape." Naruto was giddy, THE Jiraiya of the legendary three was going to teach _him_! Naruto proceeded to explain the fact that he had other sensei's who also required his time and Jiraiya said he'd spend the next two days contacting them and arranging a suitable training schedule. He then prepared to leave.

"Hey, ero-sennin, where are you going? Where will you stay?" Naruto asked as his new teacher made to leave.

"Well a hotel, or a brothel, of course! Where else?" Jiraiya stated, he got a perverted blush on his face at the mention of a brothel.

Naruto rolled his eyes, that's when the good-natured-honest-guy gene kicked in. "Nonsense! You can have one of the extra rooms while you're here! I have plenty of room…besides, it's lonely in her all by yourself all the time." Naruto offered while sporting sad puppy dog eyes when he began to talk about the loneliness of the place.

"Well, I guess I can stay but as for the lonely thing, I don't swing that way gaki. Get a girlfriend. And I ain't no pedophile."

"So you are then. Ewww maybe I shouldn't let you stay here. I don't wanna get molested." Naruto had gotten a little flustered when he implied that he was gay, so he decided that REVENGE was in order.

The two faced off like that for a little while but they were actually having fun yelling and making fun of each other if the stupid grins on their faces were any indication. After training for a little while Jiraiya promised to teach Naruto a new jutsu during their first training day but that Naruto should just do what he did normally until the training schedule was finished.

After a pleasant dinner of pork udon and dango (yes, Naruto has more than just ramen in his house) They both went to bed, Naruto in his current room and Jiraiya taking the guest room for now. He said that he'd move into the attic later, it was roomier and he could "customize" it to his…unique(super duper perverted)…tastes.

Normally during his pleasant down time in bed Naruto would think about Sakura or beating Sasuke or any number of other fantasies. But now he often found himself thinking about someone else. He got up and reached into his cloak and retrieved a broken piece of a ceramic mask. "Haku-chan…" he whispered, barely audible even to himself. In the short amount of time he had known her she had taught him many things. She taught him how treacherous a shinobi's life can be, what true strength was, and how to live a no regrets life-style. He thought back to what she looked like, what she smelled like, how small she felt dieing in his arms. He remembered when she kissed him…he thought it was funny; someone who specialized in ice jutsu and was the living embodiment of snow could make him feel so warm.

Is that what love was? Is that what it felt like to love someone…to be loved? He wasn't sure, they had barely known each other but…'When I'm around Sakura I don't feel like that. I still have the knot in my stomach but…maybe that's just me being nervous. Nervous that I'm inadequate, nervous that I really am as worthless as she says.' His eyes widen. Maybe he, dare he say it, _doesn't _love Sakura!

'No! That's impossible! I, we, she, it's supposed to happen dammit! If not Sakura-chan then who?! WHO?! No-one would ever feel, that way about me…not even…her. Not even Sakura.' He sighed. "I'm such a good prankster…I even fooled myself."

'Now's not the time to think like this! You don't want to be like Sasuke do you? No! Of course I don't. Maybe she doesn't like me now, and maybe she never will but that's no reason to give up hope! I don't anyone but myself to achieve my goals! Yeah! YEAH! I can do it! I'll be the best!' He stood up in his bed, "I'll do it for me, for my precious people, for Konoha, for Haku-chan!" He began to shout. At Jiraiya's yells he shut up and crawled back into bed, self-confidence reaffirmed. A familiar mask clasped close to his chest.

In heaven somewhere, a blonde haired male angel next to two dark haired female angels. Looking down through the clouds Arashi smiled while he pulled Haku and Uzuki close, one with each arm. "Welcome to the family kid." He said while ruffling her hair. Haku only blushed a little at the contact.

"Thank you, though, I still worry about Zabuza-san." She said looking downcast.

"Heh, I'm sure he's fitting right in." Uzuki said with a sweet and knowing smile.

"HA! Pony up boys you lose again!" A very pleased Zabuza said laying his cards down on the table. The other three Archangels(3) laid down their hands all heaving exasperated sighs. Zabuza always thought he was going to hell but it turned out that his skills, as well as his healthy appreciation for his divine lord, made him perfect for putting the fear of Kami in all those he would slay, be they demons or otherwise. He had this in common with the other Archangels. And one thing every Archangel loved, was their job. So, because there is no need for monetary tender in death, he had just won three extra shifts. This would allow him much more time to kill, literally.

"You always win Zabuza." Said one divine being. His white wings shifting while he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I think he cheats." Interjected another, gruff looking, angel whose darker gray wings, which had clearly seen many battle, twitched in agitation.

"How could he cheat? He's an angel, he can't cheat or the Big Guy would take his killing privileges way for a week." Defended the youngest _looking_ of the group. The only distinct thing about his appearance that could mark him as old would be his pitch-black wings, meaning he's been killing for Kami for a long, _long_ time and that he's killed a lot of stuff.

"Yeah I don't cheat. You just suck, now pay up!" Zabuza began to twitch and he leaned over to his right and retched.

"Dude! What the hell!? What happened!?" asked the black winged harbinger of death.

"There was a sentimental moment happening somewhere very close by. So…sappy. Ugh, sorry. Still not quite used to all this happy angel shit yet." Zabuza answered whipping his mouth with his forearm.

"Yeah me neither but it's not that bad. I mean it's not like, super happy here." The first angel spoke.

"I think I just puked a rainbow." Somewhere down on earth a little boy looked up and saw a shinning rainbow.

"Look mommy! Rainbow! Rainbow!" The boy said pointing to the sky. The mother looked up and nodded smiling at her child's innocence.

"I heard every time you see a rainbow, an angel is barfing his brains out." Said a surly teenager next them.

---Back with the ACTUAL storyline---

Naruto had gotten up early to find his perverted houseguest sipping coffee in his living room. Joining him they began to chat when Jiraiya brought up the point about Naruto's electric attack. "That kind of control over an element is rare. I'll try to find some scrolls on nature manipulation, it could become useful. Until then try and practice with it." Naruto nodded while rubbing his chin, busy thinking of ways to implement such an ability.

"Don't forget to find some on wind, I have a wind affinity as well." Naruto said puffing his chest out a bit.

"Not too shabby kiddo, but don't get cocky that'll cost you someday you know. 'A big head is an easy target' I always say." Jiraiya said pointing a finger upward as if in lecture mode.

"I always thought you said 'hehehehehehehehe'" Naruto giggled like a perverted little monkey while wringing his hands in an impersonating his new sensei.

"Noooooo, I always say this 'hehehhahahahhehehe'" Jiraiya joked while making an almost exact replica of Naruto's impersonation only in baritone instead of Naruto's mix of baritone and alto (Balto). They just laughed as they both left to begin their individual days.

Once he left his house Naruto jumped off to the training grounds. Creating three hundred clones (in addition to the fifty left at home), one hundred for control, another hundred for accuracy, and the last batch for his new elemental training (which, as of now, only consisted of creating an electrical current.). After the roles were assigned he began his "stretches" (grueling training) and "warm-ups" (should be considered self mutilation). Afterwards he got into the meat of his training and kept at it until around noon. Whipping the very small amount of sweat from his brow he made his way towards the city.

Once within the bustling streets of Konoha Naruto stealthily made his way to the hospital. Little did he know that his newest teacher had been watching him the entire time since he'd left his house and Jiraiya was impressed. Maybe this kid could surpass his dad. He also seemed to have a penchant for stealth; he'd have to teach Naruto his special invisible escape jutsu. Naruto made it to the hospital in time to visit his friends and help Tenten's father check her out of the utterly sterile prison.

Naruto invited the two to ramen but Kento had to go back and run the shop. Tenten accompanied him to the stand though. When they got to the stand the owner and his daughter both smiled brightly as Naruto entered but they did a double take when he entered with a cute girl. "Long time no see Naruto-kun, I thought you'd lost your fervor for ramen." Naruto paled and looked like someone had just hit him in the face with a wet dog.

"BLASPHEMY! I'd never lose my love of ramen! EVER! So get me ten bowls STAT! Ten-chan what will you be having?" Tenten gawked; ten bowls right off the bat? Well the people here seemed to like Naruto a lot, not like the villagers. They always seemed to send Naruto glares of pure rage and hate no matter where he went, but it didn't seem to bother him on the surface so she tried to ignore it.

"One shrimp ramen please." Tenten said while smiling.

"Oh ho! Naruto-kun what a polite girlfriend you have! And she's cute too!" Ayame, Teuchi Ichiraku's daughter, teased. Tenten blushed and looked rather annoyed but Naruto's reaction was priceless: his eyes were wide and his pupils seemed to have disappeared, his mouth was agape and he was point his right finger at Tenen(on his left) and his left finger at Ayame(in front of him towards his right) resulting in criss-crossed arms. He kept looking from Tenten to Ayame, an embarrassed blush on his face, while sputtering nonsense.

"I, plbgb, she, hffh, me, I, her, me, we." He took a big gulp of air to calm himself down "No! No no no no. We're just friends. Don't say such things!" Tenten, who had been giggling at Naruto's predicament, seemed to deflate. Was she that undesirable? At least she knew Naruto doesn't like her like _that_. That's when Naruto leaned over and tried, tried being an overstatement, to whisper in Ayame's ear. "She _may_ be cute but she's my friend's fan-girl." He said with a smirk. He loved messing with his friends.

"Ewww, not the brooding Uchiha I hope!" Ayame said while Teuchi laughed. Tenten was still recovering from being complimented on her looks and insulted for her crush at the same time.

"Nope! He's a brooding Hyuuga." They all laughed at Tenten's flustered/rage filled expressing while she sent Naruto a look that promised pain.

"I'm NOT a _fangirl_! I'm going to be a great Kunoichi like Tsunade-sama! I'm nothing like Sakura or Ino!" she spit word fangirl out like it was a piece of refuse. After managing to get her to calm down the four enjoyed easy conversation, laughing every now and again. By the time Naruto was on his fifteenth bowl Tenten had finished hers.

"Want another Ten-chan? I know I will." Naruto said through a mouthful of noodles.

"Well, I am still kind of hungry, I didn't have breakfast today…hospital food (she shuddered), but I couldn't possibly ask you to-" Naruto cut her off.

"It's no trouble Ten-chan! I've got more than enough for this!" He said smiling brightly.

"Thank you Naruto-kun." She said while return his smile.

"Our little Naruto-kun has grown up into such a gentleman!" Teuchi exclaimed, acting like he was severely touched, holding his ladle with both hand close to his heart.

"Knock it off old man! Less talk, More Ramen!" Naruto exclaimed standing on his stool with his fist thrust forward in a charging motion.

"Sir, yes sir!" Teuchi gave a faux salute and began to cook again while the two girls shared a laugh at their antics. That's when the trouble began.

"Heh, so this dump serve food huh?" Said one of the three rough looking men who entered the ramen bar. They seemed to be in their late teens-early twenties, each with a leather jacket. The leader wearing a bandana around his head like Ibiki wears his forehead protector. Naruto analyzed them.

'The one in the front has one, small, knife on him. The shorter one on the right has some brass knuckles in his pocket, and the one with the sunglasses and the smirk also has a knife. Their hands don't seem to have hardly any signs of wear, and their shoes looked old but not very worn. We are also in the civilian sector, heh, these guys are just civilian punks who think their tough.' Naruto smirked while Tenten seemed a little wary.

She was reaching for her kunai pouch, just in case, when Naruto put his hand on hers. She looked up in blushing shock see Naruto chuckling slightly and shaking his head. He then began tapping his finger on the top of her hand. She realized it was Morse code that told her 'No Threat' she smirked and pulled her hand back nodding in understanding. Naruto covertly reached over to the small cup of toothpicks on the counter.

"Hey old man how about some ramen on the house?" The obvious leader asked leaning an elbow on the counter while eyeing Ayame like a piece of meat. She gave a nervous laugh and backed up a step muttering a silent "ewwww".

"I'm afraid I can't do that sir, I need the money, and ramen don't grow on trees." Teuchi laughed at his lame joke. While Ayame didn't like these punks she was still wary of them, she shot her father a disbelieving look. She knew that he knew these guys were trouble too so why was he being so reckless? He made eye contact with her and he just shifted his eyes quickly to Naruto with a simple smile on his face. She looked over to see that his hat, that he had put on as soon as the thugs entered to restaurant, covered most of the younger boys face but you could still make out his smile. As realization hit her she smiled too.

"I'm afraid you can…if you know what's good for you and your daughter. Old man." The lead thug said ominously. He was pissed; these people weren't even batting an eyelash at his threats.

"And I'm afraid that you can't back up your threats." Naruto said merrily, slipping a few toothpicks into his palm unnoticed by everyone in the bar.

"You'd better watch it kid or I'll make you regret it." Bandana-boy said shifting his hand into the pocket, which harbored his knife. The kid's cloak shifted a little he could feel some wind pass him by on both sides.

"You and what army?" Naruto said while finally turning to make eye contact. The thug growled and snapped his fingers fully expecting his boys to grab the kid and drag him outside. Nothing happened though. He snapped again, and again, and several more times before getting angry and turning to see what was wrong.

He turned to see his two companions with a toothpick stuck in each shoulder and at the joint in the hip where the leg meets the pelvis. They couldn't move their arms or legs and they were shaking, either too shocked or too scarred to say anything. He turned back to look at the kid to see him holding up his left hand with several toothpicks fanned out between his thumbs and his fingers like a hand of poker cards. The kid was smirking too! How could the kid have done that without him noticing, it was impossible!

The leader stuffed his hand into his pocket to get out his trump card, the knife, only to find nothing. He looked at Naruto again only to see his knife in the boy's hand replacing the toothpicks. "You see, this is why you don't picks fights with ninja."

"W-w-what are you gonna do now?" The leader asked, shrinking back into a leather coat that seemed too big for his frame now that all of his bravado was lost to a twelve-year-old kid.

"Well, I'm gonna kick your asses, pay my bill, and let you know that if I ever hear you cause anymore trouble…I won't be so forgiving. Got me, big shot?" Naruto said while he popped his knuckles. Soon the three thugs were sitting at the bar, each slurping down some ramen, that Naruto offered to pay for the first time as long as they promised to turn over a new leaf. They each were sporting several painful looking injuries.

"Okay, that's enough for now! Thanks old man! Now you three, Ichi, Goh, Yon, I want you to promise me that you'll clean up your act and get real jobs. Otherwise, we'll have another 'talk'" Naruto said while placing his hands onto the shoulders of two of the brothers.

"Of-course Naruto-teicho!" Ichi, the previous leader exclaimed.

"Yeah, we'll be the best citizens in Konoha!" Goh, the sunglasses wearing, redheaded, one said.

"You've shown us the light sir! We'll follow your advice." Yon, the shortest, black haired one affirmed. As Naruto and Tenten turned to leave Ichi called out to them.

"Wait Naruto-teicho!" Naruto sighed and turned around "For defeating us and showing us such mercy, you are the new leader of…" The three jumped off their stool each entering a ridiculous pose very reminiscent of the Konohamaru Corps. "The Bangou (number) Bros.!" Naruto's eye twitched. 'Again? This is just what I need, MORE Konohamarus. Maybe I should stop beating people…nah!' After their introduction they each gave him their signature item, Ichi's Headband, Goh's sunglasses, and Yon's pair of brass knuckles. Naruto thanked them and then he and Tenten continued on their way.

Naruto gave Tenten the Bandana figuring she could use it better, he also said she was now an honorary member of the Bangou Bros. She laughed, was it like this whenever you spent the day with Naruto? Maybe she should try it out more often. He put the sunglasses on and said he could probably do something with the knuckles later. He took off his hat.

"How do I look with these bad boys on?" He asked with his hands out as if showing off his entire appearance, when she looked at his face Tenten got and eyeful of a goofy smile and wiggling eyebrows. After a few minutes of Naruto staying like that and Tenten just having a blank expression on her face, they both started laughing. After walking around town a little they saw Sasuke walking by.

"Yo, teme what's up?" Naruto asked while waving to the bastard's attention.

"Nothing dobe." Sasuke answered while keeping his hands in his pockets. Tenten just watched interestedly, she had heard of Naruto's team but never actually met them. This guy was supposed to be one of Naruto's best friends? You'd have more fun with a rock…that was thrown at you…hard.

"Oh yeah, Sasuke-teme this is Tenten-chan; Ten-chan this is Sas-chan." Naruto teased while introducing the two. Tenten giggled while extending her hand in greeting. Sasuke, however, was pissed at Naruto's words.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Sasuke…(giggle) chan." Tenten said good naturedly expecting him to shake her hand.

"I don't associate with losers. But it figures the dobe would have a loser girlfriend." Sasuke said smirking at the hurt look on her face at recalling her failure.

"That's enough Sasuke. Don't talk to her like that…and she's not my girlfriend." Naruto said while taking a step in front of Tenten somehow hoping to shield her from Sasuke's permanent bad attitude.

"She's _not_ your girlfriend? I guess even _you_ are too good for a loser like her." Sasuke said, reveling in the feeling of anger rushing from Naruto.

"I said enough Sasuke. Go brood in a corner somewhere you fucking prick." Naruto said, keeping his anger to a simmer and turning his back on his nemesis. Sasuke chuckled and was on his merry (emo) way. "Ten-chan, you're not a loser…you're not a loser at all. Heh, and if anything you're too good for me! Sasgay doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about! All Uchiha's are born with sticks up their asses and a major superiority complex along with it." She fought back her tears and laughed at his jokes, but she still felt terrible because of Sasuke's words.

Seeing this Naruto wrapped his arms around her and put his chin on her bowed head. He made soothing circles on her back with one hand while pulling her close and wrapping some of the cloak around her with the other. "It's okay Tenten, I'll get him back…I'll…hmmm." Tenten, who had stiffened at the touch before, was allowing herself to feel better in Naruto's friendly embrace. "You should cheer up Ten-chan. I shouldn't be taller than you yet." He said laughing lightly.

"Thank you…Naruto-kun" Tenten whispered. She already felt better despite how deeply Sasuke's words cut her.

"Ten-chan do you have a make up kit?" Naruto asked staring off in the direction that his "best friend" had left. At her nod he smiled a sadistic, slightly insane smile. "Good. Go get it and meet me here as soon as you can." She left and he focused on the chakra linking him to his clones. He dispelled about twenty of the ones who had been working on lightning manipulation. The sudden push and pull upon his mind from the knowledge made him quite dizzy. He sat down and allowed his mental fatigue to claim his consciousness until his bun-haired friend arrived.

When Tenten returned small make-up kit in hand she had trouble spotting Naruto. Even unconscious he was good at hiding. When she did find him she roused him from his self-induced coma. He stood up shakily at first but got his bearings and he smirked in a confident manner, spelling trouble for someone. He looked at the small bag Tenten had brought and his smile widened.

"Sorry, I don't have very much just for certain occasions and stuff like that." Tenten said handing him her beautifying tools.

"It's to be expected, you don't need any make-up at all." He said as easily as if he was commenting on the temperature outside. She turned away a little to hide her burning red face. "Come on, let's go." He sprinted off in Sasuke's general direction without a sound.

"What are we doing Naruto-kun?" Tenten whispered, she figured if they were using this much stealth she should be quiet.

"They say revenge is a dish best served cold, but I'm not known as Konoha's number one most surprising ninja for no reason. Sasuke would never expect retaliation so soon after his characteristic insults." He explained as he slowed down near the Uchiha training grounds. Putting a finger to his lips to indicate silence he proceeded alone while Tenten waited and watched from the shrubbery.

Naruto stealthily slunk towards his target, Sasuke, whose back was turned, training on his clan's training logs. His body was crouched low almost crawling, his left arm was extended forward but bent at the elbow covering his face. His right hand was completely extended straight behind him, a soft blue haze covering it. Naruto's brow was beading in sweat because of his physical and mental efforts to keep the most amount of electricity in his hand without making noise. A crackle of energy escaped Naruto's mental grip on his affinity.

Sasuke twirled with lightning fast reflexes into a defensive stance that could easily shift into a heavy offense. His Sharingan blazed to life as he searched for the disturbance but to his chagrin, he could find nothing out of place. He turned back to his post only to be face-to-smirking-face with Naruto. 'How!? What!?' were Sasuke's immediate thoughts when Naruto had managed to sneak up on him. That's when he felt Naruto's hand on his chest. As soon as this registered he felt a powerful jolt run through his body and everything felt numb. He couldn't move, speak, or even think clearly at this point. The only movement he could achieve was in his eyes, he could blink and look around. That's when the Uchiha was ruined.

Kiba was walking down the street with his teammate, the stoic bud user, Shino. Sighing for the umpteenth time he absently kicked some dirt. "It's so boring without missions. I wish these stupid exams would finish so I could get back to being a ninja." Akamaru barked in agreement with his master's complaints.

"Perhaps we could visit Hinata. Or perhaps if you had won your match we could be training right now." Shino said in cold monotone whilst adjust his glasses.

"Shut up! Chouji just got lucky! I'll beat everyone next time for sure! Why aren't you training anyway?" Kiba asked, petting Akamaru who was stationed securely on his master's head.

"I had to-" the bug user was cut off by a very loud yell. A yell belonging to, none other than, Uzumaki Naruto. He stood in the middle of the street making a loud exclamation while pointing at someone, someone with their pants around their ankles and _far _too much make up on their face. The person was also in a "seductive" pose…it would have been seductive if it had actually been a woman though. That's when the two noticed the ring of people around Naruto and the person; it was the entirety of the able-bodied Rookie Nine and team Gai as well as some villagers and a few Jounin.

"What's this?! Sasuke, UCHIHA Sasuke wears make-up, and pretty in pink kunoichi panties?! Unbelievable! I guess he finally decided to come out of the closet! So much for reviving his clan!" Naruto said in an overly loud announcer like voice. Indeed it was Sasuke. The once proud Uchiha was wearing a hooker's worth of make up as well as four-year old girls undergarments, and was posing in the street. Everyone was completely and utterly flabbergasted, thunder struck, shocked, and, of course, disgusted. What had happened to him?

After Naruto had frozen him with his lighting attack he quickly got to work. He managed to pose his body in an alluring position while Tenten went into overdrive with the make-up. Then Naruto put the icing on the cake, dropping the poor boy's trousers he quickly genjutsu-ed Sasuke's average plaid boxers into the garments that were featured a popular character to little girls. They then found a busy street and got to work. If Sasuke could move he'd be quaking with unbridled fury…but he couldn't so tough nuggets.

That's when a snigger escaped the mouth of someone in the crowd(Konohamaru), soon more people were holding back giggles, and then almost everyone (save for Sakura, Ino, and a few other Uchiha followers who were currently comatose at the spectacle) began to laugh. The Jounins all were trying _really _hard not to laugh at the poor gennin and failing miserably. The Rookie Nine plus team Gai were all completely in stitches. The Villagers, despite their hate for Naruto, had to give him some props for this one. Naruto leaned in and whispered so only Sasuke could hear.

"This is what we in ninja business like to call 'pay-back' it is also known as 'karma'. This is what they mean when they say things will catch up with you, those insults really came back to bite you in the ass didn't they? Maybe next time you'll take that stick out of your ass and think before you speak. Being a revenge obsessed dick will only kill you Sasuke, remember that." The laughter began to die down and people went about their everyday business, occasionally laughing at the ridiculous display in the street.

Kiba was still laughing his ass off when he and Shino decided to leave. "Oh man, that Naruto. Whoo! That was good. What did you think bug-boy? I didn't hear a single peep out of you back there." Kiba asked while whipping his tears of mirth away.

"That was the single most hilarious thing I have ever seen in all my days. I don't think I will ever see anything as funny as what I have just witnessed." Shino answered in complete and utter monotone.

"But you didn't laugh."

Shino turned his head towards the dog-user and in his same, controlled voice he spoke, "Ha." Kiba stood awestruck in the street as Shino continued onward. 'Wow! Naruto sure is surprising guy to be able to get _that much_ **raw** emotion out of Shino.'

Several hours later Sasuke was regaining motion but he still couldn't feel anything. So he decided to speak to the boy who had been there the entire time he had been frozen. "Still want to rub it in dobe!? Well go ahead! You'll never get another chance like this again!" Sasuke yelled. He had managed to pull up his pants and wipe off the make-up.

Naruto looked at him then blinked, and blinked again, then he started laughing. "No, no that's not why teme."

"Why then you conniving bastard!?" Sasuke asked clamping his numb fists in righteous fury.

"Well you were frozen, completely defenseless. I'm not gonna leave my best friend like that even if he was a douche to one of my other friends." Sasuke's anger seemed to disappear and was replaced by shock. His best friend? But, but, he was a dick to him all the time! Why would Naruto be nice to him in the first place?! He voiced his thoughts.

"You were my first friend and my first rival. Because of you I tried to push myself further and further. So whether you wanted to or not, you were the first person to help me get closer to my dream. If that doesn't make you my best friend I don't know what else will. Come on teme, let's get you home." Naruto said creating a couple clones to carry the still fairly disabled avenger. Even though he protested and threatened and complained the entire time Naruto knew he was thankful.

He made his way home, he needed to eat and sleep. He had made about four clones to escort Tenten home earlier after their joint prank. From their memories he could tell she had had a great day and that she would look forward to hanging out again sometime. He smiled as he made his way into his house. Jiraiya wasn't around, probably "researching". Making some quick instant ramen Naruto hastily ate it and, after a quick shower, he dispelled all his remaining clones. The ensuing headache sent him into a slumber that he would wake up from later and make a mental note to never do that again.

Jiraiya looked over his notes for the day and he could only shake his head at his new student's actions, one moment he's a hard worker, the next a strategist, then he's a merciful leader, and then he's a juvenile delinquent who puts other before himself. Life sure did get interesting.

A/N: Done. Soo what did you guys think? There will be more training but not very much next chapter. Did you like the NaruTen moments? How was the comedy? Did Jiraiya seem real enough? How did you like the Bangou Bros.? Should they make a comeback later? Please read & Review for it is an author's life-blood to see happy reviews of his hard work. Oh P.S. I will be editing and revising all my chapters and I've explained how the Takagan works in chapter 2. And by "I explained" I mean "Masked Critic explained it to me and I used it word for word in my story…thanks buddy!".

1: Not sure if he actually is a jounin, it never says.

2: This is really good on dumplings. Not sure about sushi.

3: I'm not religious so I don't care if this isn't what Archangels do or not. this means: don't fucking correct me asshole.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey, guys. Sorry for this I know you were probably excited for chapter seven but unfortunately my flash drive, which was the only thing with my files on it, completely deleted all of my files. This includes the nearly completed chapter seven. I really feel like shit right now and want to kill myself. Not really but you get the gist. Chapter seven is hereby delayed indefinitely. I have to try and remember everything I wrote down.


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